A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream
by Mark Gevisser
Palgrave Macmillan, £18.99
“The king is dead, long live the king” may not have been uttered at the conference of the African National Congress at Polokwane in 2007 when Jacob Zuma ousted Thabo Mbeki as president of the ANC but it just as well might have been. Coming in the wake of Mbeki’s denial of the AIDS epidemic, a controversial and probably corrupt multi-billion rand arms deal and his “quiet diplomacy” appeasement of Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe, Polokwane marked the end of Mbeki’s lifelong role in the ANC and politics in South Africa.
His political obituaries were written as he tried to stay in office even though he had no power. A study of what his legacy to South Africa and, indeed, the world, is or might be is timely.
Mark Gevisser attempts such a study having had access to Mbeki over the years as well as access to the ANC archive and, importantly, having lived through the transition from apartheid to democratic renewal and reconciliation. Sub-titled Thabo Mbeki and the future of the South African dream, in this book he takes us through the history of the ANC and the various other forces of opposition to the nationalist government in meticulous detail.
Taking Mbeki as his centrepiece, Gevisser details how this bright, determined, often casual but sometimes ruthless negotiator rose to power and influence from his home in the Transkei to the presidential palace in Pretoria.
It is a journey that took him out of his family into political exile and thence to power via the University of Sussex at Brighton and the Lenin Institute in Moscow, his role in the armed struggle based in Zambia and Swaziland as well as bringing together the differing anti-apartheid forces in South Africa as well as his covert meetings with Afrikaaners in England.
Gevisser studies each move along the route, rarely making judgements but clearly inviting the reader to form a view of how the boy became a man, felt disconnected, eschewed his upbringing and embraced the ANC as his family. He portrays a curious character. On the one hand a visionary determined to see justice prevail over the iniquitous apartheid regime. On the other hand a quiet, aloof man, the fixer and negotiator who preferred to do the deals but always lacked the common touch.
Popular perception has it that Nelson Mandela was the icon, the figurehead and the leader of the ANC who effectively, even though imprisoned, brought about the ultimate downfall of the nationalist government. There is much to be said for that but, without people like Mbeki and Zuma working behind the scenes, the various forces ranged against the white supremacist South African government may not have coalesced into one movement united in the armed struggle.
When he came to power Mandela took on the figurehead role determined and dignified in his quest for reconciliation. It was Mbeki who led the government policies and programmes to develop South Africa post-apartheid into the new world of democracy, economic growth, the new black middle-class and a role in the wider politics of Africa.
And what of his legacy? Well, imitation is, they say, the sincerest form of flattery and the ANC government under Jacob Zuma is carrying on many of the Mbeki policies for tackling poverty and promoting economic growth against a background of high unemployment and crime and poor education and health. That is one up to Mbeki even though he will also be remembered for his curious and iconoclastic denial of AIDS, his pandering to Mugabe next door as a fellow traveller on the road from white supremacist apartheid regime to black self-government, and an unnecessary arms deal.
But when the histories come to be written, Mbeki’s role as one of the architects of change will be crucial. Gevisser has laid the foundations for those histories with his incisive, personal, richly anecdotal and politically astute narrative. It is a “must read” book that informs, inspires and elucidates the man and his mission.
Andrew Dodgshon
