The ANC has ruled South Africa for three decades during which time the country has  gone from the promise of the Rainbow Nation to disfunction and despair. In The Super  Cadres, bestselling author Pieter du Toit examines this legacy from the early halcyon  days through to the disappointment of the Ramaphosa presidency.

Du Toit asks key questions before coming to a critical observation and a damning conclusion:

• What was the state of the ANC when it took power?
  
• Was ANC failure inevitable? Did they inherit a country so stricken by apartheid that  success was impossible?
  
• When did the first signs of misrule and corruption occur?
  
• How did each of the presidencies perform, from Mandela to Ramaphosa? What role  did each play in the road to failure?
  
• What was President Cyril Ramaphosa doing to stop state capture while he was deputy  president?

Du Toit concludes that at the very centre of ANC – and thus state - failure is ‘cadre  deployment’ which the ANC adopted as official party policy under President Thabo  Mbeki. He shows how, over time, the appointment of cadres at every level of  government inevitably led to the (con)fusion of party and state, the spread of  incompetence, and the dire corruption that ate into every part of the country once Jacob Zuma took over.