Anthony Fleischer has written seven novels, all set in Africa.

THE SKIN IS DEEP - Secker & Warburg
GARIBALDI'S SKI-BOAT - André Deutsch
FLY AWAY PAUL - André Deutsch
VAGABOND FLAG - Macmillan
CHILDREN OF ADAMASTOR - Robert Hale
THE SHORT STORY OF DISA - Lorton
OKAVANGO GODS - David Philip

Certain titles have been translated and published in Europe by Arnaldo Mondadori in Milan, Rex Verlag in Munich, and Les Presses de la Cité in Paris. Anthony has also edited 10 PEN volumes of NEW WRITING. His publishing career includes positions as Chief Executive Officer of the South African FINANCIAL MAIL, and General Manager of SA Associated Newspapers, former publisher of the RAND DAILY MAIL, SUNDAY TIMES and SUNDAY EXRESS. He is the current President of the South African Centre of International PEN, the leading global writers' organisation with 145 Centres world-wide. As an introduction to his website he expresses concern about the current desire to "transform" South Africa away from its excellent 1996 Constitution:

TRANSFORMATION

The universally respect PEN Charter upholds freedom of expression and I have been a member of South African PEN for 52 years. After a writers Congress in Prague a few years ago, a senior official of the erstwhile COSAW, the Congress of South African Writers, told me that the ANC government would not support SA PEN until it "transformed". An ANC politician now says that the Western Cape must be "transformed" because it is not acceptable that one province of the country should not be under "liberation party' control. It seems that all of Africa, even the tip of it, needs to be "transformed".

Transformed to what? Back to tribalism? Away from productivity and integrity? How does South Africa transform itself from its current status as the leading constitutional democracy on the continent? Did Robert Gabriel Mugabe "transform" Zimbabwe? Will the perpetrators of the new U-238 SCAMM - Secret, Chaves, Ahmedinejad, Mugabe, Malema - "transform" Africa away from democracy towards their highly questionable alternative? And what about Sani Abacha? Idi Amin? Jean-Bedel Bokassa? Mengistu Haile Mariam? Milton Obote? Did those leaders `transform" their countries? This terrible list of African tyrants may hold some of the answers. It is not the people of Africa who need to transform, it is their leadership. And that includes the leadership of Islam in Africa. Islam was also involved in the African slave trade and some Islamic leaders, following their faith like former Crusading Christians, still mislead their people to suicide.

Transform to what? One great leader in Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, transformed the country when it really needed it: from apartheid to constitutional democracy. His spirit, the true liberation spirit, the spirit of free Africa, is embodied in our 1996 Constitution. Writers should permit no "transformation" of that model.

Transform to what? To a centrally controlled Marxist hegemony such as China? China has accepted the principles of the free market but not the principles of the free individual. The people of China will one day oblige their leaders to transform towards a constitutional democracy which takes into account their 50 ethnic groups. Future constitutions for regions of that vast country are likely to be democratic - like Brazil, India and South Africa. Lui Xiaobo of Independent Chinese PEN was locked up for 11 years for criticizing the Chinese government. Chinese leadership should itself be transformed..

What should in fact be transformed in South Africa? First: our focus on standards of living of the poor with more financial support for the role of working women in improving them; second, our early education system to ensure that young and free individuals can advance themselves in their free society. Third, our efforts to uphold the principles or 1996 Constitution, including action against corruption so that people are free to work for their own reward in an open and competitive society, and finally: our current attitudes towards independent judiciary, free association, free press, and free expression - all protected in that same Constitution.

Write! Africa Write! - Anthony Fleischer