Season of Hope: Economic Reform Under Mandela And Mbeki [Paperback]

Alan Hirsch (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Natal Pr; 1 edition (November 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1869140419
• ISBN-13: 978-1869140410
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,370,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Guarded Overview of South African Economic Issues, March 31, 2006

By 

Reader (Arlington, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Season of Hope: Economic Reform Under Mandela And Mbeki (Paperback)

Many conservatives believe in a myth that apartheid-era South Africa was well-managed and prosperous. In reality, when Nelson Mandela and the ANC came to power in 1994, they inherited a near-broke government and a very sick economy. Inflation was high, investment low, and growth negative. White-owned corporations were risk-averse and oligopolistic. The distribution of income was the most unequal in the world, and, worst of all, the workforce had been hobbled by decades of education and job policies that deskilled the majority black population. To create an enclave of privilege for whites, apartheid had wrecked the wider economy.

This book by Alan Hirsch, an economic advisor to President Thabo Mbeki, tells how the ANC responded to these huge challenges. Most of the news is good: the ANC adopted a market-friendly but social democratic approach to economics that restored public finances, resuscitated the economy (GDP growth is now almost 5 percent per year) and began to address the horrible social legacies of apartheid. Chapters deal with specific topics such as black economic empowerment, unemployment, trade policy, and macroeconomic stability. Technical issues are helpfully framed within the context of South African and ANC history. The writing is clear and straightforward. Anyone interested in modern South Africa should read the book -- not least white skeptics who warned that majority rule would lead to socialism, dictatorship and economic ruin.

Why did I give the book only four stars? For one thing, Hirsch isn't free to write frankly about debates inside the government or ANC, since hs still works for Mbeki. This limits the book's value as history. For the same reason, Hirsch can't own up squarely to ANC policy failures, such as the devastating growth of unemployment after 1994. This reticence is especially blatant on the subject of HIV/AIDS, which Hirsch barely mentions even though it's the biggest social and economic problem facing South Africa today. (Self-censorship at the top levels of the ANC has crippled discussion of HIV/AIDS ever since Mbeki embraced quack medical theories about the epidemic.) My final complaint is stylistic: Hirsch's narrative occasionally lapses into tedious summaries of research papers and policy documents, as if he went on automatic pilot while writing.

But these are quibbles rather than serious criticisms. Hirsch has written an intelligent and well-informed book, one that punctures myths on both the left (that the ANC "sold out" the revolution) and the right (that the ANC is extremist and anti-business). It makes a very constructive contribution to the public debate in South Africa, and deserves to be widely read and pondered.