Thabo Mbeki's tenure as president of South Africa will expire in 2009. This book reviews the achievements and failures of his incumbency and offers a glimpse of the post-Mbeki era. It is not a biographical account of Mbeki or an analysis of the ANC. Rather, it focuses on a simple question: has this most wealthy and powerful of sub-Saharan African countries prospered or weakened under Mbeki's stewardship? The book's four sections cover Mbeki's political, economic and social legacies, as well as what is likely to happen in a post-Mbeki future.