Today, more than 25 years since the first democratic elections, white South Africans continue to dominate the economy, higher education and much of the media.

But under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma (2009-2018), the party badly let down the country – with a decade of endemic corruption. The African National Congress has been in power in South Africa ever since the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994.

After a lengthy Liberation Struggle with widespread protests and leading to a violent State of Emergency in the 1980s, Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and negotiations began. Whites were given the best jobs and education – creating a wealthy white elite. During apartheid, racial separation was legally enforced and many white people saw themselves as a superior race. The majority of white South Africans are descended from Dutch settlers and speak Afrikaans. This is a broader subject he has explored in his 1991 novel, The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs. Galgut was featured as “National Serviceman of the Month” in a 1983 edition of the apartheid military’s propaganda magazine, Paratus. Like all white men at the time, Galgut was legally obliged to serve for two years in the South African army enforcing apartheid rule. As an academic who has focused on South African society and history, I first came across a photo of Galgut when I was researching the End Conscription Campaign – a white anti-apartheid movement formed in 1983 that aimed to abolish compulsory military service.

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