A history of inequality in South Africa, 1652-2002 /

Although part 3 of this book deals at length with the historical development of racial inequality in South Africa from 1652 to 1994, its real subject, and its originality, is the discussion of socioeconomic change after the end of apartheid. Distinguished Afrikaner economic historian Terreblanche, who met clandestinely in Britain in the 1980s with African National Congress (ANC) leaders to discuss democratic transition, argues that in 1992 the ANC leaders, in a deal with corporate South Africa, abandoned "redistribution (of wealth) through growth" in favor of the corporate agenda of "growth for redistribution." They thus seized, in Nkrumah's earlier phrase, "the political kingdom," while leaving the economic hegemony to the corporate sector. The result, according to Terreblanche, has been rising black unemployment, worsening inequalities (tempered somewhat by the rise of a black political/corporate elite), social disruption, and violence and criminality born of frustration. The new black elite show the signs of corruption and nepotism prevalent elsewhere in Africa. The author's prescription for reform is that globalization must be challenged and the ANC government should shift from "liberal capitalist" (British/US) policies to those of the social democracies of Continental Europe, or "social capitalism." ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. J. E. Flint emeritus, Dalhousie University