Umhlaba Uyahlaba!: The World is Thorny!

Umhlaba Uyahlaba! The World is Thorny!: Socio-Economic Injustices of Post–Apartheid South Africa is a well thought out treatise that thoroughly ex-rays the journey so far in the post-apartheid dispensation in which the ANC has held sway since 1994. The book sends out several doses of political venom; arising from the economic status of the average South African (particularly the blacks), who seem not to have improved much after 19 years of political freedom. The author is pained by the fact that the promised new economic lease on life has remained a mirage. Professor Emman Osakwe, Professor of Social Studies and former Dean, Postgraduate School, Delta State University, Abraka Elias Cebekhulu’s work enhances the knowledge of the reader in respect of new and classical thinkers in the fields of sociology, economics, African studies and public and social policy. Because of its detailed exposition of many aspects of South Africa’s social reality and the way it is written, it can be used at many levels of studies. Professor Evan Mantzaris, Former Professor of Sociology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal The book is written in a style that makes it a combination of personal, mostly eclectic ideas that are shaped by the author’s personal life experiences, but are enhanced and substantiated with solid, well diversified and wide-ranging empirical research data. It emphasises that Black and White South Africans live in separate and unequal worlds. The book also ruminates on the fact that politicians acquire power and wealth at the expense of the poor people of South Africa. This was the picture during the apartheid era; and the situation has not changed much in the new South Africa. The author remains puzzled as to why South Africa has rich socio-economic spaces for just a few and poor socio-economic spaces for many. About the author Elias Cebekhulu holds a PhD in Social Policy and is a Senior Lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Social Sciences. He has written widely on the failures of social policies in post-apartheid South Africa.