Book Review - Democracy and Delusion by Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh

Whether by design or default, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh’s take on the ANC’s early history in his book, Democracy and Delusion, induces stomach-churning laughter and tears as he tries to put paid to the party’s bombastic discourse about its early revolutionary leanings.

Mpofu-Walsh’s narrative highlights the absurdities of the ANC’s contradictory politics and shows how its founding fathers were loath to challenge the colonial status quo. In the process, a picture emerges of an organisation desperately at odds with its early history.

Delivered in incisive language, his juxtaposition of the party of old, which pandered to its colonial masters, and its contemporary image as a "revolutionary force" makes for informative and entertaining reading. 

This is because it lays bare the shaky edifice upon which the ANC has built its self-styled reputation as the country’s liberator-in-chief.

In fact, the South African Native National Congress of the early 20th century, which would later become the ANC, was anything but revolutionary in its sociopolitical posture and leanings. Nor was it progressive in its treatment of women, who did not enjoy full member status. It would take 31 years for women to be brought into the fold.

Mpofu-Walsh sketches a portrait of the early ANC as a political safe haven for members of the black elite driven by the need to protect their turf without rocking the structural boat.

The remnants of this conservative impulse have manifested in the governing party’s pervasive machismo — or what Mpofu-Walsh characterises as the ANC’s "masculine politics" — which reached a crescendo during President Jacob Zuma’s rape trial in the mid-2000s.

In his myth-busting book, Mpofu-Walsh picks apart the struggle mythology in which the contemporary ANC has cloaked itself. One of the book’s 10 chapters is aimed at rebutting the idea that the party liberated the country — or that SA is indeed fully liberated.

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