A well-known emigre South African writer has unleashed his pen against crime and corruption in his homeland in a U.S. magazine

In an open letter to Nelson Mandela in the December 2008 issue of Harper's magazine, Breyten Breytenbach described horrific attacks on relatives and others in South Africa, saying they are evidence of "a society in profound disarray." And the poet, memoirist and one-time anti-apartheid activist charges that Mandela is doing little more than raising funds for his charities from celebrities "who treat you like some exotic teddy bear to slobber over." Breytenbach, who is white, had been an outspoken critic of apartheid who served seven years in prison for treason, convicted in 1975 for assisting Mandela's then-outlawed African National Congress guerrilla group in its sabotage campaign against the white-minority government. Breytenbach left South Africa for Paris after his release from prison in 1982. He remained active in the anti-apartheid cause in exile, but has made his life abroad.

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