Bringing together empirical and academic understanding. A great resource, accessible while detailed. An asset for anyone desiring to enlarge their comprehension of facts, otherwise too often simplicically explained in European countries. Surprisingly engaging read.
Wonderful work Mr Mashaba! This manuscript is evidence of a commendable insight into leadership. The author reflects a high level of academic integration. Although not an academic study, he shows the wonderful ability to apply the relevant theory on a high level. His understanding, discussion and application of theoretical models within context reflects to a high-level argument. The reflection within the South African context is commendable with a writing style that is suggestive to high level information integration.
Let this insight not get lost but let it be applied within the leadership context you are practicing.
(Dr Albert Wort, Phd - Personal Professional Leadership. University of Johannesburg)
Isaac Mashaba’s overview of African politics is commendably fresh and steers away from mudslinging, instead focussing on an apolitical approach; the more casual writing style rids it of the limitations of a purely academic work. He has established credibility by merely stating the course of history and not getting emotionally involved. Of interest is that his well-formulated criticisms are directed at the antagonist and protagonist alike, with a firm dollop of ‘realpolitik’, which gives the book a sense of authenticity without being contemptuous of the raw lesions which still exist in South Africa’s social fibre. Mashaba has shown wisdom, and realism, and an urgent need for the unassuming truth, nowadays a rare commodity absent in a plethora of questionable doctrine and fake news. Highly recommended.
(Wim de Beer, MPhil, University of Johannesburg, Soweto Campus)
A true South African patriot, Isaac Mashaba’s book clearly argues that it is very possible for South Africa to correct and redirect its current failing trajectory as a nation. His book makes a valuable contribution to the everyday reader’s understanding of the nature of state fragility and the contributing factors to such a state. Mashaba implores South Africa’s leaders to take the moral high ground and act with conviction and determination, and without fear or favour, to steer the country away from the brink of imminent fragility. This is a timely book for the population at large, and well worth reading.
(Dr Edward L. Mienie, Ph.D. INCM, Associate Professor of Strategic & Security Studies, University of North Georgia, USA)
Isaac Mashaba’s book raises numerous questions regarding efficiency and effectiveness of governance in South Africa. The primary area, and the central question of the text is why the country (or the continent in general) is not doing better when it comes to political, socio-economic, or security outputs of the system. He approaches the problem from several different conceptual perspectives and deals with the most imminent problems of the country. This book would potentially appeal to anyone (politicians, decision makers, stake holders, and civil society) involved in South African or even African politics. There are elements of the book that could be used on undergraduate and postgraduate courses (students of political science, public policy). This is a timely book that will find a wide audience.
Dr Martin Riegl, Ph.D, Institute of Political Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
This is the story of Schalk W Fourie’s ten years in the elite South African Army Special Forces, commonly known as the “Recces.”SW started his military career as a national serviceman at 1 Special Service Battalion, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He volunteered for Special Forces and a year later, after completing the hardest Special Forces Selection in the world, and...
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This is the concise (738 pages split into two volumes) story of the final phase of the Buccaneer aircraft operated by 24 Squadron of the South African Air Force during the period 1985 to 1991 when the squadron closed down. Included are the H2 TV Guided bomb project as well as the participation in the last major operations of the...
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The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale has been a source of fierce contestation and emotion for decades, but up to now little was known about the Recces’ presence and impact during this controversial battle. In the last book of the nail-biting trilogy about 1 Recce, the award-winning author Alexander Strachan, himself an ex-Recce, reveals more on the Recces’ involvement there. Packed...
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Die Slag van Cuito Cuanavale is al dekades lank 'n bron van hewige konflik en emosie, maar tot nou toe was min bekend oor die Recces se teenwoordigheid en impak tydens dié omstrede gevegte. In hierdie laaste boek van die spanningsvolle trilogie oor 1 Recce onthul Alexander Strachan, bekroonde skrywer en self 'n oud-Recce, meer oor die Recces se betrokkenheid...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 54 WAR OF INTERVENTION IN ANGOLA VOLUME 4: Angolan and Cuban Air Forces, 1985-1987 - Tom Cooper, Adrien Fontanellaz, Jose Augusto Matos War of Intervention in Angola, Volume 4, continues the coverage of the operational history of the Angolan Air Force and Air Defence Force (FAPA/DAA) as told by Angolan and Cuban sources, in the period 1985-1987. Many accounts...
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It is May 1983. The UMR is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Headquarters, the UMR Hall, in Greytown. A medal parade, civic dinner and a number of other events are on the programme. The members of the Unit are upbeat and enthusiastic and look forward to all the activities. There is an officers meeting in the old UMR Hall. On...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 53 THE CIA AND BRITISH MERCENARIES IN ANGOLA, 1975-1976 - Stephen Rookes The 1974 Carnation Revolution came as a blessing for independence movements in Portugal's African colonies: Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea. As had been the case in a number of sub-Saharan countries suddenly finding themselves free of the colonial yoke, the political vacuum left behind by a...
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This book tells the story of the author’s three contracts as a mercenary in the ‘64-‘65 Congo conflict. It is a vivid account of his personal experiences, from his first contract as a raw recruit to his last contract, when he was involved in the formation of the navy on Lake Tanganyika and was the first C.O. Hugh started writing...
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General Georg Meiring is the last of the BIG FIVE GENERALS of the Border War era – consisting of names that were commonly heard in South African households and often on the lips of many a young national serviceman of that time, Magnus Malan, Constand Viljoen, Jannie Geldenhuys, Kat Liebenberg, Georg Meiring. These were the leaders of the most powerful...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 52 FOR GOD AND THE CIA: Cuban Exile Forces in the Congo and Beyond c.1961-1967 - Stephen Rookes As the United Nations armed forces found themselves struggling to quell a series of armed rebellions, towards the end of 1962 the United States increased its military role in the Congo Crisis by providing the Congolese government with a small air...
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Until now little has been known about the Rhodesian contribution to the history of the SAS. Now at last the men themselves tell their own stories of the exploits of that Special Forces unit during the Bush War and the years before. SAS Rhodesia provides a comprehensive account of the origins and history of this famous Special Forces unit, as told...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 50 War of Intervention in Angola - Volume 3: Angolan and Cuban Air Forces 1975-1985 - Tom Cooper, Adrian Fontanellaz, Jose Augusto Matos Most accounts of the conflict known in the West as the ‘Border War’ barely mention the operations by the FAPA/DAA. A handful of published histories mention two MiG-21s claimed as shot down by Dassault Mirage F.1...
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Designed in response to a 1951 requirement, the C-130 Hercules is the most successful military airlifter ever built. Since it first flew in prototype form on 23 August 1954, more than 2,100 have been produced in over eighty different versions. Across its variants, the Hercules serves more than sixty air forces, as well as many civilian cargo operators, in a...
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AFRICA@WAR SERIES: VOLUME 51 RIPE FOR REBELLION: Political and Military Insurgency in the Congo, 1946-1964 - Stephen Rookes After many years of political struggle, the Belgian Congo was finally granted its independence in June 1960. Becoming the Republic of the Congo (and later the Democratic Republic of the Congo), what was supposed to be a momentous occasion in the country's history...
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By August 1974 the Portuguese had all but abandoned Angola, its erstwhile colony, and there was a fear in both the Intelligence services of South Africa and America that the country was likely to fall the hands of the MPLA, generally regarded as a Soviet surrogate. It was that fear that triggered the training by South Africa of guerrilla groups...
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This work is a serious, non-fictional autobiography, which inter alia is an expose of the times and personalities involved during the thirty years the author spent in covert operations with the Nationalist Party government of South Africa from 1966. The author’s targets during this period included Soviet and Cuban political and military activity in Southern Africa and those of the...
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Al Venter's latest book on South Africa's 23-year Border War along the Angolan frontier offers a host of new perspectives. These include details about units like the South African Air Force 44 Squadron which converted Dakota aircraft into flying gun platforms similar to those used in America's war in South-East Asia. He also has American nuclear specialist David Albright -...
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Executive Outcomes was already well known to several governments and private corporations before it exploded into controversy in 1993 after entering into a contract with Angola’s FAA to train a brigade-level force to decisively end their decades-old conflict with UNITA. It was also well known to those involved in fermenting conflicts in order to topple African governments with a view...
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Paratroopers or Fallschirmjäger as they are known in German, were the elite parachute troops (Fallschirmtruppe) of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. Although the Americans and Italians, and to a greater extent, the Russians had experimented with airborne troops, it was the Germans who pioneered vertical envelopment using parachute, glider-borne and air-landed troops to conduct successful airborne operations in...
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Operation Savannah – the Troops’ Diaries Vol 1 & 2 Bookset Much has been written about Operation Savannah by politicians, historians, academics, generals, and senior officers. Those perspectives were not always shared by the very young men who were involved at the front. Many of Operation Savannah’s veterans have struggled to share their experience, even with family and friends. Most...
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