Imraan Buccus

Wiese, owner of Shoprite and one of the richest men in South Africa, was a regular donor to the National Party.

Van Vuuren shows that the international criminal network set up to support apartheid continued to operate after apartheid.

After apartheid this criminal network intersected with the corruption that had festered in the ANC in exile. The arms deal, which originated the rot of the democratic state, brought both networks into a toxic alliance. This alliance is rotting our democracy and our economy from the inside.

Commentators have argued that under Jacob Zuma we have collapsed into a kleptocratic or mafia state.

But what is often lacking in this analysis is a history of corruption and how the foundation for the present crisis was laid in the 1970s and 1980s.

South Africa cannot progress until all who have been complicit with this rule are removed from public office. We need to have a well-informed and honest conversation about just how deep the rot runs, how long it has run and what will be required to finally root it out.

Organisations like Lonmin and Absa must be dealt with. Reparations must be paid.

We need to re-open the investigation into the arms deal and to have an honest conversation about corruption in the ANC in exile. There can be no holy cows.

This book is not a quick read. It is 624-pages long. But it is absolutely vital reading for anyone who seriously wants to understand how a society that was born in such a wellspring of hope has collapsed into a kleptocracy.

Van Vuuren has done his country a great service. If you read one book this year make it Apartheid Guns and Money.

Buccus is senior research associate at ASRI, research fellow in the School of Social Sciences at UKZN and academic director of a university study abroad programme on political transformation. He promotes #Reading Revolution via Books@antique at Antique Cafe in Morningside.