CYRIL'S CHOICES, lessons from 25 years of freedom in South Africa, an agenda for reform

271pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2019

Political journalist, foreign correspondent and academic John Mattisonn's review of the first 25 years of freedom in South Africa. He outlines where he feels South Africa went wrong and offers a way forward.

John Matisonn started out on the Rand Daily Mail, was the Washington correspondent for a number of South African newspapers, head of the SABC's election coverage in 1994, and a councillor on the newly-formed Independent Broadcast Authority (IBA). He co-founded the Public Broadcasting Initiative, and from 2002 to 2004 was editorial director of the South African edition of THISDAY newspaper. In 2005 he was sent by the United Nations to chair the Electoral Media Commission in Afghanistan, and worked in the country until 2010. He is the author of God, Spies and Lies: finding South Africa's future through its past.