R.W. Johnson is an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and was the only South African Rhodes Scholar to return home after the fall of apartheid. He has published twelve books, scores of academic articles and innumerable articles for the international press.
Well-written and well argued, his book is at its best describing
the eye-watering corruption, nepotism and gang-violence that seem
to link powerful officials in Zuma's home province of KwaZulu-Natal
to the wider ANC. ... That South Africa's black leaders appear to
have fulfilled the worst predictions of their white supremacist
predecessors makes uncomfortable reading. What surprises Johnson is
how quickly they managed to do it.
*The Times*
Provocative polemic ... produces a devastating charge sheet against
the ANC.
*The Sunday Times*
An immensely readable and disturbing book. Let us pray that his
prophecies are this time mistaken. ...Ten years ago, Johnson would
have been crucified for saying such things, but 'How Long?' was
greeted by an ominous silence in South Africa, making its way on to
local bestseller lists without any review attention, not even
attacks from Johnson's enemies. It seems even they are reconciled
to the fact that Johnson is right again: South Africa is in
crisis.
*The Spectator*
'The Looming Crisis' confronts the Naipauline problem of
post-colonial nation states: the transformation of freedom fighters
into oppressors. ... the extreme prophesies in 'The Looming Crisis'
do not diminish the value of Johnson's diagnosis of South Africa's
problems.
*Newsweek, 'The Most Important International Nonfiction Books of
2015'*
An assembly of facts that illustrate and reinforce how, since the
electoral victory of the ANC under Mandela in 1994, South Africa's
governing apparatus has degenerated into an instrument of patronage
and self-enrichment by the new black elite.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Johnson's newest book speaks to the corruption that now riddles the
country's body politic. As a result, it is increasingly up to the
country's politicians, economic and business leaders and others to
explain how they, if they were in charge, would arrest the decay
and reverse the process. The country clearly wants to hear such
things and is increasingly hungry for solid answers.
*Daily Maverick, South Africa*
In 1977, Johnson was taking stock of where the apartheid state
stood in relation to its likely end, and his prediction was
more-or-less correct: 15 years later, it was officially dead, and
South Africa had a new, democratically elected government. In the
new nostradamic book, Johnson seems to be talking about a similar
time frame, perhaps shortened to a decade or so, but in interviews
he has given a much shorter period until we hit the wall, saying
South Africa has a mere two years before it has to go begging to
the International Monetary Fund for a bail-out. . . . Johnson has a
great polemical gift . . . punchy
*Mail & Guardian, South Africa*
This book will undoubtedly be met with outrage among South Africa's
political and intellectual elite. If so, it will not be because of
any great deficiencies in the text, but because of the grip of
ideology on the country's elite. By the same token, it will be
hailed by some people in opposition circles simply because of the
vigour with which it criticises not only South Africa's current
government, but the entire history of the ANC since the late 1950s,
as well as for its devastating critique of African nationalism more
generally.
*Professor Stephen Ellis, Free University of Amsterdam, author of
'External Mission: The ANC in Exile, 1960-90'*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |