Mandela’s legacy has been “prostituted and betrayed” – Lord Peter Hain's verdict of ANC

The former British Cabinet minister and lifelong anti-apartheid campaigner, Lord Peter Hain, has published a new book, Liberation and Corruption: Why Freedom Movements Fail. In it, he explores why idealistic liberation movements so often fall into the trap of becoming corrupt. And he has a scathing verdict for the ANC; “Mandela would be turning in his grave, he says at what has happened to his legacy and the way it’s been deeply prostituted and betrayed.”  Hain reflects on decades of solidarity with the ANC, his personal ties to Nelson Mandela, and the heartbreak of watching comrades abandon their ideals. He names Jacob Zuma as a key figure in the “industrial-scale looting” that hollowed out South Africa’s economy. But this isn’t just a South African story. Hain connects the dots globally, from Nicaragua to Algeria, and says liberation movements often inherit corrupt colonial systems and fail to dismantle them. He also calls out Western complicity, citing billions laundered through UK and US financial systems, and urges global powers to take financial crime seriously. His solution? A new International Anti-Corruption Court, backed by South African jurists like Judge Richard Goldstone. And a call to citizens: reject petty bribery.

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