Outsider

Across the world, outsiders have been penetrating mainstream politics: Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron – and, in South Africa, Herman Mashaba, who went from being a business tycoon to Joburg’s DA mayor, and now founder of his own political party. In his trademark opinionated fashion, political scientist Prince Mashele delivers a fascinating fly-on-the-wall account of Mashaba’s dramatic rise to the mayor’s office, managing the fragile coalition with the EFF, falling out with the DA and starting his own party. What emerges is a portrait of a pragmatic man with a passion for capitalism, but who defies ideological boxes. In Mashele’s hands, Mashaba is also the perfect foil for our troubling political machinery, revealing ever more sharply the fault lines of our government system and the rot of the ruling ANC party.