JANICE Warman, a journalist who has worked on numerous publications including the Spectator and the Guardian, writes beautifully.
This comes through as she dissects the lives of three extraordinary fellow students whose paths crossed her own when she studied at Rhodes University. This is as much their story as it is Warman's.
The Class of '79 represents a slice of South African life and contributes to the growing literature of resistance history. Warman revisits that period 30 years later and looks at the lives of Guy Berger, Marian Sparg and Zubeida Jaffer, fellow students who, through a sense of justice or perhaps pure idealism, chose to get involved in the anti-apartheid struggle.
All three suffered for their beliefs andJaffer, in particular, endured undue suffering at the hands of the South African Security Police. Warman interviews the three over a period of time, and in this book she pieces together their lives of resistance, the price they and their families paid, and what those years have come to mean now that South Africa is free.
Warman describes Sparg as one of the quietest girls in her class who went on to join Umkhonto we Sizwe, trained in exile in Angola, and was eventually convicted of bombing three police stations.
Jaffer became the head of the parliamentary bureau for Independent newspapers, but was more widely acknowledged for her activism and her bravery. Warner is moved by the fact that she was imprisoned, poisoned and tortured, yet chose not to prosecute her torturer.
Berger, who went on to become the head of the Rhodes University journalism department, was detained and imprisonment as a direct result of the treachery of police spies Carl Edwards and Craig Williamson.
This is a book that will no doubt fascinate overseas readers. For a South African audience, it may leave a sense of having not being told the full story. Take Sparg's life, which became just as intriguing in the post-apartheid era. She was the chief executive of the National Prosecuting Authority and the Directorate of Special Operations ( Scorpions). Sparg was first charged then cleared of allegations of nepotism, fraud and corruption, resulting in her resigning from her position. Warman does not touch on any of this. Still, as a gifted writer andthroughher fascinating characters, she makes up for such shortcomings.
Warman writes of Berger sitting in his office in the new journalism building, looking out at the students streaming by. He told her: "We were young, and had somewhat naive dreams and drives around political change. But there was a beauty in that, and it was innocently conceived and pursued ... Although many of our hopes now seem unlikely to be met, it's a much better world that we have helped to bring into being."
Review by: Nalini Naidoo
Source: Witness(Pietermaritzburg)