TERROR IN THE NIGHT - A South African novel

This is an important must-read book. This novel is about a natural disaster and human corruption and mixes fact with fiction. The framework is about a family escaping the mammoth floods that swept across the northern provinces of South Africa in the year 2000. Within this action-packed framework, the deeper intent of the book soon becomes apparent. The message is in the characters.

There’s Dumusani Maluti, Thanks to the company he keeps, this once charming and scrupulously honest young man has turned into a monstrous villain, personifying the domestic violence, rape and empty-headed male dominance that is threatening to become the rule in 21^st century South Africa. His wife, Rosina, by contrast is intelligent and sensible, but finds herself trapped in the role of domestic worker to a white family to keep her family afloat. Then there’s Johnny Bothma, an opinionated, know-it-all official, newly appointed to a managerial position, inherits a nest of government corruption and malpractice. Gregory is a property developer and Koos a building contractor, both as crooked and racist as each other, who represent the multitude of rogues in the building industry cashing in on the government housing bonanza that came with democracy.

The book reveals the depth of corruption – symbolised by the rising floodwaters – that afflicts a nation that has lost its moral compass.