Great African Society

Only a dramatic, imaginatively crafted intervention a massive redistribution programme managed by the private sector, far-reaching policy changes in schooling, housing and health, and better, disciplined governance will deliver the genuine liberation South Africas still-poor millions expected from the 1994 settlement. Without it, without the real promise of a free, meritocratic society, South Africa will flounder and fail as corruption, crime, social decay, hopelessness and anger engulf society. This is the compelling thesis of Hlumelo Bikos hard-hitting, thoughtful analysis of South Africas past, present and future, a sobering assessment of where we stand today, and where we need to go. At once unnervingly candid and inspiring, The Great African Society demolishes the complacent optimism that underpins much soft thinking about South Africas future and places at the service of public debate practical, achievable objectives for business, government and civil society. South Africas challenge, the book argues, is to act now to avoid the mounting threat of revolt and decline that would devalue every political and economic achievement of the past decade-and-a-half and leave Nelson Mandelas feted rainbow nation staring decrepitude in the face. No debate from here on about the South African future can be taken seriously without weighing Bikos insights and his warnings. The Great African Society is vividly moral in its intentions, but sober and unsentimental in examining political and economic imperatives. It is guaranteed to make the reader sit up and take stock afresh.