Raymond Suttner is one of our most independent, original and insightful commentators. In Recovering democracy in South Africa, which brings together the best of his recent writings and essays, he offers a fresh look at a wide range of contentious issues that currently preoccupy South Africans, from the threat to constitutionalism to problems with leadership and questions of ethics. The book is as much as in-depth engagement with our difficult present as it is a damning account of the politics of the Zuma era. Despite his strongly argued criticism of the present political order, Raymond Suttner does not leave the reader with a sense of powerlessness or pessimism. Much of the book is devoted to uncovering the strengths and fundamental values of our democracy and envisioning ways by which South Africans can recover and build on the promise of 1994.