Inevitably in a
compilation of this kind, it ends up being a bit of a mixed bag – some of the
lies are funnier or more horrific than others, but Ancer seldom misses his
mark. (Review by Margaret von Klemperer, courtesy of The Witness)
Journalist Jonathan Ancer starts off Bullsh!t: 50 Fibs that made South Africa, his collection of 50 of
the great lies that have been perpetuated in South Africa’s history with the
1994 election. Was it really the wonderful, liberating, free and fair event
that we have all been led to believe? Well, probably not, according to Ancer.
And he goes on from there. We revisit the infamous Pretoria News vanishing decuplets; the myth of the empty land before the colonisers arrived; Schabir Shaik’s terminal illness; Jacob Zuma’s firepool; P.W. Botha’s crossing of the Rubicon and Janie Allan and Eugene Terreblanche’s underpants. It’s all there, and much more.
Some of it is of course hilarious, but a lot is sobering, or destined to make the reader angry. Ancer looks at South Africa’s constitution – is it a lie as some politicians claim? So he went and asked lawyer Geoff Budlender, who said that the lie is on the part of those in the government who say they are going to comply with the constitution, and then don’t. The problem is not the constitution, but the failure to give it effect.
Ancer also takes aim at advocate Dali Mpofu – some might feel an easy target if you are looking for windbags rather than straight fibbers. And then goes on to tackle the Information scandal or Infogate to make the point that lies and corruption are not a post-apartheid phenomenon.
He ends with a list of the country’s ten biggest fibbers – a real rogues’ gallery of South Africans whose closets are full of skeletons. Among them are politicians Bathabile Dlamini and Carl Niehaus; sportspeople Hansie Cronje and Oscar Pistorius; writer Laurens van der Post and, topping the list, media mogul and self-proclaimed doctor to Nelson Mandela Survé.
It is a book to dip into rather than read from cover to cover. Inevitably in a compilation of this kind, it ends up being a bit of a mixed bag – some of the lies are funnier or more horrific than others, but Ancer seldom misses his mark. No doubt there will be those among his targets who will feel aggrieved, but somehow I doubt if even the most dedicated litigants are going to sue him. - Margaret von Klemperer
Jonathan Ancer’s Bullsh!t: 50 Fibs that made South Africa is published by Jonathan Ball: ISBN 978-1-77619-311-0