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| Published in 2017 by Johathan Ball Publishers |
Durban-born government fixer and author Crispian Olver is the kind of guy that does the right thing, even if it hurts.
He qualified as a medical doctor in South Africa before joining government in 1994 to help implement the ambitious aims of the Reconstruction and Development Programme as Manager Developing in the Office of then President Nelson Mandela.
He was a leader in the End Conscription Campaign and rose through the Western Cape ANC ranks become deputy secretary general from 1990 – 1992.
He held several positions during his years in government and in 2015 headed up graft busting team set up by Pravin Gordhan to root out corruption in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro. There, he soon found how thieves were bleeding PE’s dry, especially in the housing department and Integrated Public Transport System.
As fixer in a party infamous for its political assassinations, Olver knew he was living under a sword. He did not keep any routines and has a body guard, but eventually the thugs got too close and Olver had to go on the run. Instead of hiding from the sword, he hit back with the pen, telling of the graft in PE, a city he described as totally captured by a criminal network — a microcosm of South Africa’s national government.
Olver’s almost forensic account of how Port Elizabeth was stolen, lock stock and barrel, by a criminal syndicate abetted by factions in ANC is divided into chapters focusing on the pillaged institutions. It should be a bone dry read, but instead reads like a real-life thriller.
As media pundit Ferial Haffajee wrote of How To Steal A City, “There will be lots of books about the ANC this year. This is the best one.”
Olver told Eastern Cape paper the Herald Times the electorate do not buy lies and propaganda and predicted the voters would get angry. “You can’t come with change a year or 18 months before an election and expect voters to roll over.
He was right, for the citizens of Nelson Mandela Metro Bay last year voted in a coalition government comprising the DA, ACDP, Cope, and the UDM, whose members are now rebuilding the city.
Chief of staff, Kristoff Adelbert, on November 24 told Media24 the allegations made in How to Steal a City will be investigated. In a statement, he said that several contracts had already been frozen and a number of officials had been suspended, were fired or were facing disciplinary action for involvement in corruption.
One can but hope what started as a microcosm in PE can be finished nationally in SA, to put an end to cronies in the payroll of the state capturer, and vindicate men who did the right thing.
Note: Sadly, in 2025, eight years after having above review published in The Witness, the capture of politicians around the world has just deepened, with Big Pharma showing other oligarch how to tap taxes around the world, bribing politicans to ask no questions as they coerced their voters to poison themselvelves; with Russia being the democratic beacon welcoming God-fearing families to their fold while America continues to be the Great Satan.
