BOOKS
The importance of bridging the divide
Published: 04-FEB-05
From Apartheid to Zaamheid: Breaking down walls and building bridges in South African society, by Neville Melville. Published by Aardvark Press in South Africa (www.aardvarkpress.co.za)
After a decade of democracy, Advocate Neville Melville assesses how the widening of the wealth-poverty divide, primarily along racial lines, threatens our young democracy. If this situation continues, asserts Melville, a social upheaval of greater magnitude than that occurring in Zimbabwe is probable.
Doom is not, however, inevitable. If even a million South Africans of all races join together to work towards bettering the lot of their fellow citizens, there is every likelihood of the occurrence of a second miracle of even greater magnitude than the peaceful transition to democracy. The message of the book is that each person can make a difference if that difference is made sooner rather than later!
From Apartheid to Zaamheid includes:�
-a
personal perspective on how and why many South Africans continue to build walls, both physical and metaphorical, to protect and separate their communities;
-insights into how these walls simply can�t protect the interests of these �fortified� communities in the long-term;
-inspiring accounts of the efforts and successes of a number of ordinary people who are striving to build bridges; and,
-guidelines for other South Africans to begin, in any small way, to do the same.
A passionate and involved South African, and Banking Ombudsman since 2000, Advocate Melville was involved with criminal law on both sides of the fence (prosecuting and defending) during the turbulent 1980s and knows only too well the effects of war and political violence.
Melville played a role in ensuring a peaceful transition to democracy in the 'killing fields' of KwaZulu-Natal; oversaw the investigation of allegations of serious abuses by apartheid police and was instrumental in
closing down the operations of a KwaZulu police hit squad (the instigator was later granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission).
From this involvement flowed his appointment, as part of former president Nelson Mandela's administration, as the national ombudsman for complaints against the police force that had earned international notoriety during the apartheid era.
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