Book Review: Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred

Abstract

The biographer's task should be to stand on the shoulders of his subject, writes Mark Gevisser. The Dream Deferred tracks changes of a South Africa in transition. The complex shoulders which he opts for, belong to the 'elusive' and 'aloof' South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose life, is posited as similarly and continuously never home. Several controversies motivate the reading of this book: conspiracy theories regarding HIV / AIDS, the recall from office of Jacob Zuma and the subsequent cold war, and the 'quiet diplomacy' from which the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe emerged, amongst a plethora of issues.