As the ANC President Jacob Zuma takes over after a sweeping election victory, he has received a more hostile reception in the British media than either of his two ANC predecessors. But, despite concerns about corruption and all the deep problems of unemployment and crime which are the terrible legacy of apartheid, there is much to be optimistic about in the New South Africa:
• probably the most democratic constitution in the world
• a vigorous and independent civil society
• the ANC’s deep democratic tradition and fifteen years of the ANC government running the most successful economy in the country’s history
• new houses, electricity, and water for millions of people for the first time
• pensions to millions of blacks for the first time
I hope that Jacob Zuma, formerly a political prisoner with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, will accept the following benchmarks for governing his country’s ‘rainbow democracy’:
• maintaining Mandela’s commitment to a pluralist democracy, and rejecting the tendency to rule by clique under Thabo Mbeki
• respect for judicial independence
• eradicating corruption
• tackling HIV/AIDS which kills 1000 people daily
• tackling crime
• prioritising skills so unemployed blacks can get new jobs
• an anti-poverty drive combined with maintaining the business confidence and macro economic stability of the last 15 years
• ensuring Mugabe’s despotic and tragic rule does not continue to damage Zimbabwe by supporting the new MDC Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
• on foreign policy – a return to Mandela’s ethical policies, where South Africa was an example to the world, replacing its sorry recent record of blocking United Nations action against the Burmese Junta and the government of Sudan which was complicit in genocide in Darfur