William Gumede is an associate professor in the School of Governance at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is executive chairperson of the Democracy Works Foundation and former deputy editor of the Sowetan. During the anti-apartheid struggle, he held several leadership positions in South African student, civic and trade union movements. He was a political violence mediator and area coordinator for the National Peace Committee during the multiparty negotiations for a democratic South Africa and was seconded to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He is the author of the bestselling Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC; Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times; and South Africa in BRICS: Salvation or Ruination.