Book Review - The Game Changer by Eric Naki

The title of Bantu Holomisa’s biography was not idly chosen. The "general", as he is often referred to, who has led coups and survived them as well as several assassination attempts, wants to change "corruption perpetrated at the highest level" in SA.

To this end, he is calling for a national convention, like Codesa, of all parties, and civil society, "to extricate the country from the quagmire it is in and change the negative image it has as a result of corruption".

Holomisa and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) that he leads, have already held a preconvention meeting, attended by nearly all the opposition political parties.

The ANC was invited but did not attend, "as the party was embroiled in its own leadership contests and political squabbles", says the peacemaker.

His biographer, Eric Naki, writes "it is clear that Holomisa’s strength lies in bringing people together. He has mastered the art of consultation."

Naki, a journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in print and broadcast media, has written this authorised biography in close collaboration with his subject. 

Yet he does not hesitate to point out Holomisa’s flaws, because the president of the UDM does not shy away from self-criticism — neither in our interview nor in the book.

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In 57 pages of appendices, we read a document entitled The Rise and Fall of Bantu Holomisa. It was produced by the ANC and extensively circulated locally and internationally — for Holomisa had a high public profile — after the governing party had expelled him.

Jeremy Cronin, the former first deputy secretary of the South African Communist Party, authored it and admitted in it that Holomisa, "emerged as one of the most popular of our [ANC] leaders". Cronin has since publicly regretted his role in the document.

Holomisa did not hesitate to hit back with his own exposition, called Comrades in Corruption. That was in 1996 and 21 years later, his words — "dark and ominous clouds are lurking on the horizon, signifying the worst intolerance this country has ever experienced" — were remarkably prescient.

This is particularly so when you consider that Nelson Mandela was president and our rainbow nation was basking in the glow of a negotiated (Codesa) settlement and the iconic international status of its leader.

But, if there is one word that sticks in Holomisa’s craw, it is corruption. He knew it existed in the ANC.

It was his submission against the ANC’s wishes to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission — in which he wrote about former Transkei prime minister George Matanzima’s acceptance of a R2m bribe from hotelier Sol Kerzner for exclusive gambling rights — that got him expelled.

When Holomisa and his generals discovered that the new prime minister, Stella Sigcau, was also bribed, she too was asked to resign and was removed, like her predecessor, in a bloodless military coup. Holomisa recounts that when he came to power, he "personally pursued Sol Kerzner and his associates". He asked the apartheid government to extradite Kerzner, but Pretoria refused  to do so.

He writes, "some top ANC politicians were bribed into silence too". Proof of this, he says, lies in president Mandela’s government withdrawing the (bribery) charges against Kerzner after he had "contributed heavily to the ANC’s election campaign funds".

The pain and humiliation of Holomisa’s expulsion in 1996 was underscored "when the ANC government suddenly decided to keep my retirement pension but gave it to all the other homeland leaders".

Holomisa struggled to make ends meet for his family, could not educate his children and his insurance policies lapsed.

His suffering was all the greater because the relationship between him and Mandela was so close that the icon referred to him as "my son".

Holomisa writes about visiting Mandela at his Soweto home after he was released from prison. Mandela’s wife at the time, Winnie, worried about his safety, so Holomisa dispatched two members of his Transkei Defence Force as bodyguards.

He accompanied Mandela on overseas visits and was sent abroad on missions for him. When people asked why Mandela had so much confidence in him, part of the reason, writes Naki, was Holomisa’s trustworthiness, "and his frank and honest opinion".

Holomisa became Madiba’s "battering ram" at the Codesa negotiations. When the National Party made proposals "that Mandela disliked, he would let Holomisa deal with it".

At a time when hostels were sites of brutality, the violence between migrant workers from KwaZulu-Natal and Soweto residents, often alluded to as Inkatha against the ANC, "was also being fanned by the apartheid security forces".

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Original review on: www.businesslive.co.za