Matthew Blackman and Nick Dall’s new book,
Rogues’ Gallery: An Irreverent History of Corruption in South Africa, from the VOC to the ANC, is a comedic map of “dodgy dealings” in South Africa from when the country’s history was first written down.
In a
Daily Maverick webinar hosted by journalist Marianne Thamm on Thursday, the authors discussed their book and its characters, and pondered if corruption in South Africa will ever come to an end.
Extensively researched by its writers,
Rogues’ Gallery “adds to a body of work which presents an understanding for us of what corruption actually is”, commented Thamm. And unless one attempts to understand the forces that drive corruption in South Africa, there is no way to mitigate it, she said.