Bring me my Machine Gun: The Battle for the Soul of South Africa from Mandela to Zuma Alec Russell In the early 1990s, the African National Congress (ANC), ld by Nelson Mandela, engaged in the historic and peaceful transition to power. For many people, the story of South Africa ends there - with the triumph of the ANC over the bitter injustice of the apartheid regime against the backdrop of Mandela's astonishing reconciliatory mission. Since the end of apartheid South Africa's economy has grown, as has a fledging black middle class, and some black South Africans have attained positions of great wealth and power - but there remains rampant inequality amid signs of an incipient culture of cronyism. Violence is endemic in the townships and in the major cities. Race relations remain fraught as whites struggle to find their place in the new order. President Thabo Mbeki's denial of the AIDS epidemic has led to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and has been morally and politically disastrous. His failure to check the abuses of Robert Mugabe's sclerotic dictatorship in Zimbabwe has tarnished South Africa's reputation abroad and baffled Mbeki's former friends. South Africa stands at a precipice, and the ANC is at the heart of the struggle to define the future of what should be the continent's greatest hope. After fifteen years in power the ANC could still work to contain AIDS and violence and reignite the reformist zeal of the early post-apartheid years. But the collapse of neighboring Zimbabwe is a chilling example of how a revolutionary movement can ossify in power and abandon its ideals. Uncertainty over South Africa's trajectory intensified when Jacob Zuma, a classic charismatic populist who was embroiled in a corruption scandal, became, in late 2007, Mandela's second successor as leader of the ANC. The journey from Mandela to Zuma is a political and moral epic, populated with extraordinary characters and with the fate of South Africa at its core. […] Alec Russell is world news editor at the Financial Times and formerly their Johannesburg bureau chief. He previously covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia, the end of apartheid, and Nelson Mandela's presidency for the Daily Telegraph and was its foreign editor form 2001-2003. From 2003-2006 he was based in Washington, D.C., and covered the Bush administration. He is the author of two previous books and lives in London.