Apartheid Never Died — It Just Changed Clothes: Prof Radebe's book Sparks fire
By Noko Mabofa Maleka | Insight Jozi News | Braamfontein, Johannesburg
In a thought-provoking and politically charged evening at The Commune in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, the book launch of Professor Mandla Radebe’s new release, Apartheid Is Not Over, drew together activists, intellectuals, and political leaders for a night of critical engagement and unapologetic truth-telling.
The event featured keynote remarks by Mr. Solly Africa Mapaila, General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), who did not mince words. “We must stop pretending we are free when we are still trapped in an economic system built to keep Black people out of ownership and opportunity,” he said to a room that nodded, clapped, and occasionally stood in agreement.
📘 The Book: Apartheid Is Not Over
Prof. Mandla Radebe’s book is a bold political intervention. In it, he unpacks how apartheid's economic architecture was never dismantled — only rebranded. Land, wealth, ownership, and capital remain largely in the hands of a racial elite, while the majority continue to suffer under neo-liberal policies that serve corporate interests over people.
He writes: “The negotiated settlement of the early 1990s gave Black people political freedom but kept economic power in the hands of apartheid beneficiaries.”
The book doesn’t just offer critique — it calls for systemic transformation, deeper introspection, and an end to performative reconciliation. It is both a mirror and a matchstick: reflecting uncomfortable truths and igniting revolutionary imagination.
🔥 A Call to Rethink Our Freedom
Mapaila’s contribution echoed the central argument of the book. “If we don't dismantle the economic engines of apartheid, then 1994 was just a cosmetic change. We must build an economy that serves the people — not the few.”
Audience members engaged in robust Q&A, with some calling the book “a wake-up call” while others questioned whether the ANC-led government has lost its revolutionary mandate.
📚 Not Just One Voice – A Growing Body of Work
Prof Radebe’s book is not alone in raising the alarm. In recent years, a new generation of South African thinkers and writers have pushed back against the idea that the country’s past is behind us.
- Land Matters by Tembeka Ngcukaitobi exposes the failures of land reform and argues that white economic dominance has not been dismantled — only tolerated.
- The Poisoned Well by Tim Kelsall and Chandre Gould investigates the apartheid regime’s sinister chemical warfare programme and shows how its legacy still shapes national trauma.
- Blacks Can't Be Racist by Mugabe Ratshikuni challenges liberal narratives and reframes racism as a structure of power, not just personal prejudice.
Together with Apartheid Is Not Over, these works represent a powerful intellectual resistance to post-1994 complacency and call for radical rethinking of justice, equity, and freedom in South Africa.
🗣️ Join the Conversation
Do you believe apartheid is truly over in South Africa — or has it taken new forms? Is economic freedom a myth for the majority? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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