19 December 2008 Books Hot type By Richard Steyn

Paul Holden, a young historian and freelance writer, has rendered the nation a service by compiling The Arms Deal in Your Pocket (Jonathan Ball, R125) - an idiot's guide to the decade-long scandal of greed, corruption and lies that have ruined the Mbeki presidency and cast a long shadow over virtually every aspect of public life in SA. Holden assumes ignorance or confusion on the part of the reader and tells the complicated story by means of a simple and accessible text supplemented by chapter summaries and timelines, as well as useful lists of key characters and the companies involved. Politicians, journalists, historians and lay readers wishing to make sense of the decision by the ANC to buy guns rather than butter soon after coming to power will find this an indispensable reference source. It also lends urgency to the push for a judicial cleansing of the Augean stables and underlines why Jacob Zuma, like Mbeki, ought not to be leader of the ANC, let alone president of SA.