Van Schalkwyk deals with a wide range of domestic problems including what he correctly describes as "an alarming lapse in public morality" and the intellectual sophists who have transformed the constitution into "a law beyond the challenge of the very people whom it is intended to serve."

The latter is best illustrated by the tendentious arguments used by abolitionists who wish to defend the dubious death penalty decision (State vs Makwanyane) of the constitutional court. The death penalty and the "debate" around the ultimate criminal sanction is clearly of major importance to Van Schalkwyk (a former Judge of the Supreme Court, who resigned in 1996, claiming that Dullah Omar was undermining the judiciary) for he devotes an entire chapter to it.

The book is brutally frank about the scale, pace and likely cost of Black business "empowerment" and the entitlement ethos upon which it rests. The chapter on transformation – actually a code word for control by the ANC – describes the chaos unleashed in the SABC, SAPS and state health services by "transformation." Afrikaner turn-coat Max du Preez is delightfully described as "soothsayer of the ANC." Concluding chapters deal with the collapse of the economy, education and the judiciary under ANC rule.

The picture sketched is negative but accurate: except for the wholly inaccurate description of the constitution as having a "generally libertarian philosophy." Van Schalkwyk’s conclusion is nonetheless spot on: "In reality we are probably the most unequal, the most endangered, the most stressed, the most abused and least well governed of all the countries that presume to call themselves democratic."

This is an important, brave and sober assessment of the New South Africa. The book does tend to jump around a bit, but the former judge has at least attempted something that no South African academic has yet had the guts to do … write an honest assessment of the first 4/5 years of ANC/SACP rule. One Miracle is Not Enough deserves to be widely read.

THIS is our last issue of the year. Again, it has been a most troubled and difficult year for most South Africans. For us at APN, our most harrowing experience was compiling our special issue, No 221, dealing with the ongoing and all too often grotesquely barbaric farm murders, mostly White victims and now tipping the 600 mark since the ANC took power in 1994. Since publication, I have had extensive discussions with various agricultural unions, in particular the Transvaal Agricultural Union, and will be carrying reports from them in the New Year.

In the meantime, my deepest gratitude to all those marvellous people who rallied round so generously to our call for toys for our hardluck Afrikaner kiddies. I am happy to tell you that several hundred small fry from distressed families will have a much happier Christmas because of your kind hearts. In recent weeks, too, we have received some exceptionally handsome cheques, which have boosted our Mission Rescue account substantially. Here I must admit that Hennie Kock and I are hoarding our funds like two skinflint misers, in the belief that we will face even heavier demands for family rescue as the economy nosedives still further in 1999.