Apartheid's Leviathan Electricity and the Power of Technological Ambivalence

Faeeza Ballim's timely work successfully explains the durability of [electricity utility] Eskom, offers some sense of why the backlash against Eskom (including assassination attempts) is mounting, and offers historians valuable tools for analyzing the relationship between electric power infrastructures and the state. (H-Environment, H-Net Reviews) A fascinating and timely study of South Africa's state corporations-in particular its national electricity provider Eskom-and their relationship to the (post)apartheid state. Drawing on meticulous historical research, Ballim powerfully revises existing accounts of state power in South Africa and speaks to urgent questions of energy politics and democratization in the present. - Antina von Schnitzler, author of Democracy's Infrastructure: Techno-Politics and Protest after Apartheid The inevitable intertwining of power supply, politics and the market has been well explored. Yet in policy debates, one continues to hear calls for the separation of the three parts of the assemblage. Ballim takes up the issue in South Africa and captivatingly shows how calls for disentanglement obscure better insights. - Richard Rottenburg, University of the Witwatersrand The trouble of a timely book is that one is tempted to demand proposals and solutions to the current crisis. Apartheid's Leviathan is not that book and that is perhaps one of its greatest strengths. Faeeza Ballim's careful exposition of archival documents and valuable insights from first-hand interviews add a human character offering a useful contribution demanding us to reflect on Eskom in its broader historical context. - Brian Kamanzi (Africa Is a Country) Faeeza Ballim's historical study of the South African national energy provider, the parastatal Eskom (Electricity Supply Commission of South Africa), is extremely timely [and] well researched. (International Journal of African Historical Studies) Apartheid's Leviathan is a brief and well-written book. It leads readers through terrains of socioeconomic and racial politics in South Africa while contributing to the body of knowledge in African history of technology, infrastructure, urban, and political studies (Technology and Culture) This book is an important contribution to the historiography of the history of science and technology in Southern Africa. I recommend it to anyone interested in the history and political economy of science and technology in Africa. It is an excellent resource for undergraduate and graduate classes on the History of Science and Technology, Social and Urban History, African History, African Studies, and International Studies. - Knowledge Grey Moyo (African Studies Quarterly)