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The South African 'Arms Deal' was never a single event. Rather it was, and still is, a series of scandals and outrages, all contributing towards a dubious momentum that takes South Africa further away from transparent democratic practice. The Devil in the Detail, written by two of South Africa's leading researchers on the subject, takes the reader on a journey of insight. Witness at close hand the breaking open of State secrets, with tales of outrageous personal enrichment. Explore how the Arms Deal emerged out of the criminal networks of both the old SADF and the ANC's security apparatus, raising questions as to whether South Africa's remarkable transition was not oiled, at key points, by criminal intent and collusion. Follow the trail of the various offset deals done after the Arms Deal - cumulatively worth just as much as - and discover that corruption continues to impact on defence spending in South Africa. Examine the economics and witness how the Arms Deal was not only economically irrational, but virtually suicidal, almost single-handedly derailing the post-apartheid economic project. Finally, read about the rise of the 'shadow state', the politicisation of prosecutions, and the rise of the 'spooks'. The remarkable conclusion of this landmark study is that years after the deal took place, the forces that drove its decisions have only grown in strength, further blighting South Africa's prospects for a future in which all may have a share.
- Sales Rank: #1549478 in eBooks
- Published on: 2011-11-02
- Released on: 2011-11-02
- Format: Kindle eBook
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
The Aficionado's Guide to the "Arms Deal"
By not me
Few non-South Africans have heard of the "Arms Deal," but it is THE great political scandal of post-1994 democratic South Africa. The rotten story began with a decision by the new ANC government to procure super-expensive high-tech weapons. Not only were these weapons not needed for the defense of the nation, but the tenders were hijacked by crooks who paid bribes to ANC pols and fixers. Even the current President, Jacob Zuma, took money. Given the country's crying social needs, the revenue wasted on these weapons was a mockery of the ideals of the liberation struggle. Yet the scandal has never been properly investigated, and it continues to fester in South Africa's collective political consciousness, undermining confidence in democratic institutions and leaving the ANC fearful of future disclosures.
"The Devil in the Detail" is a detailed reconstruction of the complex scandal. It is filled with information about the manipulation of tenders and it offers highly-informed conjectures about who got the bribes. It's a great book and is essential reading for anyone interested in modern South African history. I took off one star only because the text frequently wanders off topic, as, for exemaple, in the opening chapter, which discusses at length the development of a culture of secrecy in the MK and SANDF during the 1980s. The discussion was interesting but hardly necessary to unpacking and understanding the Arms Deal. I suspect it was originally written for a different purpose altogether.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Essential reading, but also horribly flawed
By Yossarian Pilgrim
This book is an important and timely contribution to the maturing genre of post-Apartheid scholarship that is more comfortable breaking several taboos about the New South Africa. It stitches together an untold number of threads from various scandals, investigations, snippets and reports to produce a compelling indictment of South Africa's leaders. More importantly, it confirms the failure of South Africa's political system and structures which are the result of a failed constitutional process.
However, the book also suffers from several serious flaws that will result in limited distribution and very few readers bothering to go cover-to-cover, which is why I cannot award it more than three stars.
Firstly, the editing was disastrous. Unfortunately, we are now accustomed to South African publishers doing as little editing, fact-checking and quality control as possible. They are not so much publishers as printing and marketing intermediaries these days. Given the book's subject matter it raises suspicions of outright sabotage; a Joint Investigate Report mini-me...
The editing failure was no doubt aided by the sort of turgid and contorted prose that is a hallmark of South African scholars active in non-scientific fields. For example, look at the number of times "combustible" is used. The count is so high that it moves from being merely sloppy to a fetish. There is also an irritating habit of reprising instead of editing for clarity.
Second, and related, the structure of the content is miserable. The book should have worked in reverse chronological order for reasons of pace and historical plot development.
Third, the opening chapters betray some of the maddening reticence to be too critical of the ANC. The psychology of this deference comes from the conflation of the ANC and democracy which the party and its cohorts assiduously cultivate. It is time for SA scholars to stop pretending that the ANC was both necessary and sufficient for a democratic formation on the southern tip of Africa.
Fourth, and related, this reflexive "big L" Liberalism produces tunnel vision about South Africa past, present and future. For example, the authors situate the roots of the Arms Scandal in the national military-industrial complex's casual approach to human rights on both sides of the Apartheid conflict. As a result the opening chapters are a conclusion meandering in search of evidence. It was an unnecessary and fruitless digression though expected because of the author backgrounds and expertise.
They are "conflict and security" wonks (of a pacifistic persuasion) and they were determined to make their particular view of the field central to SA's historical narrative. This leaves the Arms Deal to be viewed as an aberration birthed by "militarization". It is a dangerously narrow idea that must be flattened if SA is to have any chance of saving its democracy if it's not already too late.
The authors inadvertently stumble upon the fertilizer that allowed arms procurement corruption to blossom. They rightly point out the insidious nature of the ANC's taxpayer rent-seeking and touch on the incentive to corrupt SA's mineral wealth, but fail to fingerprint its antecedents in van der Stel, Rhodes and the National Party, to name some distant and very recent examples.
South Africa's political structures are desperately allergic to liberty. It has always been a redoubt for tyranny - both soft and hard - and visible in indigenous as well as imported politics. It's the sort of society that Rousseau, Hobbes, Moore, Plato, et al would easily recognize as their intellectual spawn.
Failing to recognize this, the authors are left searching for cause in consequence.
The unfortunate reality is that the ANC has taken most of the baton from the National Party. Both parties obsessed with social engineering, and allowed corrupt networks of elites to set the agenda for their benefit. This is why once implacabble enemies became chums in a heartbeat. It had nothing to do with a clique of military types finding common cause in subverting democracy for personal gain. Their actions were only possible because the new Constitution perpetuated a model best described as National Oligarchical Socialism.
ANC-NP differences were never honestly ideological except at a rhetorical level. A succession of socialist administrations underscore the point, as seen in the cloning of Afrikaner Empowerment (General Mining Corp. etc) and the happy resort to the most odious Apartheid era legal circumlocutions and meddling to justify, secure, and promote the elite (witness the recent evasions by Maharaj).
Fifth, and also related, are some key factual failures. For example, the authors perpetuate the thoroughly debunked myth that the SADF suffered a defeat at Cuito Cuenevale (the "African Stalingrad".... ). The bias is made more obvious by the praise lavished on the ANC's first - and failed - efforts at infiltration into South Africa to wage war.
So let's clear it up quickly - the SADF suffered a severe intelligence failure in 1986-87 that allowed an unprecedented Soviet-sponsored sea and air lift of vast quantities of sophisticated weapons to be positioned close to the UNITA base at Mavinga. Once discovered, the SADF was ordered to *block* any advance on Mavinga. SADF forces were never advancing on Cuito and were in fact prohibited from assaulting Cuito successfully despite opportunities to do so.
Despite the near total loss of air superiority thanks to the introduction of Cuban piloted MIG-23s and surface-to-air missiles, a SADF force that amounted to little more than a full-strength battalion backed by UNITA guerrillas routed several Angolan brigades and locked the survivors down in Cuito for the remainder of the conflict. Indeed, Castro was so incensed at the failure in the East that he escalated by moving a massive force comprising some of his best conventional units into position across from Ruacana in the West.
Another consequence of the authors' blind spot in this respect is the failure to acknowledge that the end of Apartheid was more a product of the end of the Cold War than sanctions. The collapse of the Soviet Union removed the basis for the "Total Onslaught", and curtailed Cuba's colonial ambitions for lack of funds and support.
However, it is possible that the authors did this in order to avoid having the book automatically denounced as it surely would be if Chester Crocker was mentioned as anything but an imperialist and a reactionary. A little sugar to make the medicine go down...
In conclusion, the book confirms just how widely SA missed its opportunity to reset its civil society in favor of liberty. The Constitution was wall-papered with show-piece rights motivated by egalitarianism, but it left intact the ancient and deadly bacterium of tyranny. The design of the parliamentary system was deeply flawed and all but guarantees more of the same. And so it is that the ANC has become the same parasite on the very people to whom it promised freedom, dignity and opportunity.
You will be more informed for reading this book, but be prepared for a needlessly frustrating experience.
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