Alert! The latest edition of the magazine of record for the US left, The Nation, features a long “after Mandela” piece by journo Andrew Rice, who incorporates three recent books that canvas South Africa’s evolving landscape in his analysis. Well worth the read:
Nelson Mandela Square can be found in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, an asphalted enclave of vast shopping centers and tinted office blocks. A generation ago, during the era of apartheid, the New York Times correspondent Joseph Lelyveld likened the place’s aesthetic to “Dallas-on-the-veld.” It’s only gotten wealthier, glassier and more garish since then, as South Africa has undergone a thoroughgoing metamorphosis. White rule has given way to black governance, repression has been replaced by tremulous coexistence, economic sanctions have fallen and Sandton has become, arguably, the nation’s true nerve center. Corporations, banks and even the national stock exchange have moved there, taking flight from Johannesburg’s decaying downtown. Though an air of danger looms over much of the city–South Africa’s murder rate is six times that of the United States, and burglaries and carjackings are rampant–rich people, and especially rich white people, have found a relative haven in Sandton, hunkering down inside fortified luxury homes. Nelson Mandela Square is a centerpiece of the suburb, and by extension, this new South Africa. It is both a monument to a founding father, and, not secondarily, a well-guarded mall filled with expensive boutiques.
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