The Last Afrikaner Leaders: A supreme test of power
Hermann Giliomee
DESCRIPTION
Respected historian Hermann Giliomee (author of The Afrikaners) takes a fresh and incisive look at five of the most influential Afrikaner leaders - and how and why their best laid plans went tragically and horrifically wrong.
From H F Verwoerd - who ironically undermined apartheid irrevocably with his schools plan - via the pompous and imperial John Vorster, and the finger-wagging PW Botha to FW de Klerk with a detour for F Van Zyl Slabbert: each leader's policies, reasoning and foibles are explored to great effect.
Who knew that Verwoerd based his thinking on erroneous population data, that PW Botha had a first stroke which was never revealed to the public but greatly compromised his judgement, or that the Rubicon debacle depended on a misunderstanding?