THOUGH no doubt regarded as blasphemy by the ANC/SACP and their overly adoring fellow travellers, books by reputable writers are now, thankfully, beginning to surface, exploding the carefully nurtured myths and fantasies about Mr Mandela’s decrepit "New SA," as rusty and leaky a vessel as ever put to sea.

First such thunderbolt came with One Miracle Is Not Enough, by Rex van Schalkwyk, a former judge of the SA Supreme Court. While the writing style is distinctly upscale, this critique is an important road map for those seeking to understand the ongoing SA tragedy. (See APN No 223).

This was followed by South Africa’s Future: From Crisis to Prosperity, by Anthony Ginsberg, Southern Africa director of Barclays Offshore. If you want to read a serious, literate book exposing the hollowness of SA’s socialist imposed economy, this is it. Dealing with many factors now slowly strangling the economy to death, Ginsberg cites cataclysmic unemployment, pointing out that by 2000 a mere 40% of economically active South Africans will have jobs in the formal sector. Side by side with this, government total debt stands at a staggering 58% of GDP.

Looking into the future, he sees SA increasingly mirroring the situation in Zimbabwe, where the unemployment rate is 40%, inflation in excess of 30%, the Zimbabwe $ has depreciated 300% against the US$ since 1980: and food riots are the order of the day. He then outlines better ways of addressing these problems and, hopefully, moving on to prosperity. None of his prescriptions is at all radical. But, not to its credit, ABSA took fright, fearing the ANC/SACP might take offence. They then put him on suspension. The Financial Mail’s headline comment on this corporate cowardice told it all: "When Business Loses Its Balls." Exactly.

So great was its impact, here and overseas, that Jim was prevailed on to expand it into a book. This he has now done. It should hit the bookshelves just about the same time as this issue goes out. Wielding a wicked but witty pen, he deals mercilessly with the carnage of SA’s unbridled, darkly savage crime holocaust; with our collapsed and chaotic education, police and prison services; with the bias and mendacity displayed by so much of SA’s Establishment media. But Jim has a special scorn for our controversial Health Minister, Nkosazana Zuma, a lady giving every indication of wishing to become the Great SA Dictator. He skewers Zuma without quarter;

"The hospitals in South Africa have turned into nightmares. You risk your life going to a government hospital. Two years ago Mandela announced free medical care for children. The hospitals are now filled with unemployed women and their children. They sit there for hours to have a cough looked at or a runny nose. Since it’s free and they don’t have anything else to do they can afford to wait for expensive medical care over unimportant issues.

"When a friend of mine was bitten by a spider he had a severe reaction: pain and a high fever. I rushed him to the emergency room – not knowing any better. He was so sick he was put into isolation. I sat there with him for almost 10 hours. No one bothered to come and see him. Meanwhile all the kids with the sniffles were taken care of. Patients with no major problems, who came in after he did, were treated and went home.

"My begging and pleading did no good. We were ignored. He finally walked out and spent two days recuperating from the bite. He fared well compared to others. Some are dying from new diseases contracted because the wards are filthy and infested with insects.