{"id":734,"date":"2012-08-08T11:10:14","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T11:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/?p=734"},"modified":"2012-08-08T11:10:15","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T11:10:15","slug":"from-apartheid-to-zaamheid-a-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/2012\/08\/08\/from-apartheid-to-zaamheid-a-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"From Apartheid to Zaamheid \u2013 a book review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the midst of the furore of the Limpopo textbook crisis and the gloom of the world’s economic failures a book arrived serendipitously on my desk and helped to keep my spirits positive.
\nFrom Apartheid to Zaamheid<\/em> is a readable and practical book about making a difference, being a positive force for change in South Africa, rather than a perpetual whinger about all that is wrong in the country.
\nMy only complaint really is, why did the book take so long to arrive on my desk? It was published by Aardvark Press in 2004 and yet I only came to see it this week. Well, maybe I’m not as awake as I like to think I am!
\nThe author is Advocate Neville Melville who played a significant role in the transition from the apartheid regime to the non-racial democracy we live in today. He has also been the Banking Ombudsman as well as being appointed by former president Nelson Mandela as the Police Ombudsman.
\nThe book is 130 pages long and presents, in very readable ways, the problems facing South Africa and a number of possible ways that individuals can make contributions to solving these problems \u2013 not in grand, sweeping ways, but in small ways that touch people’s lives.
\nThe word \u201cZaamheid\u201d, Melville explains, he coined from the international symbol for South Africa, namely \u201cZA\u201d, and the initial letters of the words \u201calle mense (all people)\u201d to form the \u201cZaam\u201d, which sounds a lot like the Afrikaans word \u201csaam\u201d which means \u201ctogether\u201d. The suffix \u201c-heid\u201d means roughly \u201c-ness\u201d as in \u201capart-ness\u201d.
\nMelville defines his new word as meaning \u201ceveryone working together\u201d and he writes, \u201cThe choice of an Afrikaans-sounding word would, in itself, be an act of bridge building.\u201d
\nThat introduces the major theme of the book, which is also its sub-title: \u201cBreaking down walls and building bridges in South African society.\u201d
\nSome of the chapter titles give an idea of how this theme is explored by Melville: \u201cThe crack in the wall\u201d; \u201cThe great wall\u201d; \u201cBehind high\"\"<\/a> walls\u201d; \u201cA peek over the wall\u201d; \u201cUp against a brick wall\u201d; and \u201cBringing down walls\u201d.
\nIn his analysis of the problems facing South Africa Melville makes it clear that the walls, both real and metaphorical, which continue to keep South Africans apart from each other are the source of the ills besetting the country: \u201cThe affluent continue to barricade themselves from the rest of the world in security villages with checkpoint controls. The workplace is increasingly becoming a no-go zone for whites, particularly if they are males.\u201d
\nIn the final chapter of the book, \u201cThe way ahead\u201d, Melville makes some pertinent points, like \u201cWe are, as a country, spending too much of our energies in trading blame and squabbling amongst ourselves. Instead we should be focussing all our efforts into the challenges that face us. Until every last person has a stake in the country’s wealth, none of our individual wealth is secure.\u201d
\nThe book as a whole is a challenge to all South Africans to become bridge builders rather than wall builders<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the midst of the furore of the Limpopo textbook crisis and the gloom of the world’s economic failures a book arrived serendipitously on my desk and helped to keep my spirits positive. From Apartheid to Zaamheid is a readable and practical book about making a difference, being a positive force for change in South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"2","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"3","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"3","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[130,106,131,1],"tags":[245,240,179],"class_list":["post-734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-current-affairs-comments","category-reviews","category-south-africa","tag-politics","tag-south-africa","tag-walls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":739,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions\/739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}