Every scandal. Every rand. Added up.

The
Receipt

What 30 years of ANC rule cost you

In 1994, Baba Mkhize put on his best suit and stood in a queue from four in the morning. He was promised a better life for all. Thirty years later, the boy he taught isiZulu on an oil drum has added up what happened to that promise.

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A BOOK BY B.R. VAAL
Cover of THE RECEIPT: What 30 Years of ANC Rule Cost You, by B.R. Vaal
Scroll for the bill
The bill

Thirty years.
One receipt.

Every government gets a bill at the end. This is the ANC's: the money that went missing, the lives that were lost, and the years South Africans spent waiting in the dark.

Every line is drawn from the public record: court judgments, commission findings, Auditor-General reports and official statistics. Each chapter lists its sources.

Read the whole bill

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
Open since 27/04/1994
"A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL"
CUSTOMER: THE PEOPLE   TILL: 30 YRS
ARMS DEALR70 000 000 000
AIDS DENIAL330 000 LIVES
NKANDLAR246 000 000
STATE CAPTURER57 000 000 000
SAA BAILOUTSR50 700 000 000
VBS BANKR2 000 000 000
MARIKANA34 LIVES
LOAD SHEDDING15 YEARS
TEMBISA HOSPITALR2 000 000 000
JULY 2021354 LIVES
SOFA (PHALA PHALA)$580 000
PETROL 1994R1.76
PETROL 2026R30.25
UNEMPLOYED 19942.5 MILLION
UNEMPLOYED 20268.5 MILLION
TOTAL DUE:YOU
PAID BY YOU
*** NO REFUNDS ***
PROMISES NOT HONOURED
THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOTE
Then and now

What it cost you

The scandals made the headlines. The bill landed on kitchen tables.

Petrol, per litre
R1.76→R30.25
NOV 1994 → OCT 2026

A 50-litre tank went from about R88 to about R1,512.

Unemployed South Africans
2.5m→8.5m
1994 → 2026

More than three times as many people looking for work that isn't there.

Load shedding
1998→15 yrs
WARNED 1998 · LIGHTS OUT 2008

The government was warned the country would run short of power. South Africans spent the next fifteen years in the dark.

The story

Sawubona.
I see you.

The first word of isiZulu the author ever learned was taught by a man in blue Shell overalls, sitting on an upturned oil drum in the shade of a fuel depot in Hoedspruit. Everybody called him Induna. To a six-year-old boy, he was Baba Mkhize.

On 27 April 1994, Baba Mkhize put on a suit and voted for the first time in his life. He believed the promise. THE RECEIPT follows what happened to it, from the Arms Deal to Phala Phala, through the eyes of the people who paid.

“Somebody made a promise in 1994, and somebody broke it.”
From the Foreword
Inside the book

Five parts. 24 chapters.
One country.

Part oneThe Promise+
  1. 01A Better Life for All
  2. 02The Deal That Started It All
Part twoThe Rot 1999–2008+
  1. 03The President Who Denied a Virus
  2. 04Looking Away
  3. 05The Recall
Part threeThe Looting Years 2009–2018+
  1. 06Nkandla
  2. 07The Family
  3. 08The Weekend That Broke the Rand
  4. 09Captured
  5. 10The Airline That Fell
  6. 11The Firebrand
  7. 12The Bank That Robbed the Poor
Part fourWhat It Cost You+
  1. 13Darkness
  2. 14The Trains That Stopped
  3. 15No Work
  4. 16The Price of Everything
  5. 17Unsafe
  6. 18The Towns That Died
Part fiveThe New Dawn 2018–now+
  1. 19The Man from Marikana
  2. 20Bosasa and the R500,000 Donation
  3. 21Looting a Pandemic
  4. 22Phala Phala: The Full Story
  5. 23Burning July
  6. 24The Day the Voters Said Enough
Also: Foreword ·Prologue: Dollars in the Sofa ·Epilogue: What South Africans Deserve ·Closing: Kuzolunga
Free sample

Read the first chapter free

The Foreword, the Prologue (Dollars in the Sofa) and Chapter 1. Eighteen pages. No sign-up.

Download the free sample (PDF)
B.R.
VaalThe author

B.R. Vaal grew up alongside the new South Africa: a boy at a fuel depot in the Lowveld in the Mandela and Mbeki years, a teenager in Johannesburg when Zuma took over, and a working man by the time the lights started going off for good.

He has spent his life among ordinary South Africans, black and white, and has listened to their stories. The stories are different. The ending is always the same.

So he decided to add it up. THE RECEIPT is his first book.

Contact: rouxkidsbooks@gmail.com

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Questions

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Your book is sent by courier as soon as your payment reflects. Delivery usually takes 3 to 5 working days, depending on where you are.

Is the courier fee per book?

No. The R99 courier fee is per order, so ordering more than one copy to the same address costs R99 in total.

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Is it all true?

The facts about government, the party and its leaders come from the public record: court judgments, commission reports, official statistics and published journalism. The sources are listed at the end of each chapter. The personal stories have had names and some details changed to protect the people who shared them.

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