Cometh, the renaissance man - South Africa - Elections '99 - Sustainable Democracy

by Kondwani Chirambo

The flag bedecked hall resonated with serenades of the leader of the new age. Thabo Mbeki's image beamed downed from the walls, from the podium, from all around in bright yellow, black and green strips, symbolic of the African National Congress (ANC)'s flags.

A cinema-size screen flashed results by the minute to the hundreds of supporters gathered in the main hall of Gallagher Estates, headquarters of the ANC--each fresh announcement consolidating their confidence, their anthems and their loyalty to the man who surely shall be King come June 16.

The glare of television cameras, the rush of security, the pregnant air of expectation all climaxed with the entry of South Africa's next President

Donning traditional garb, dancing and prancing, men, women--white and black--swaggered to the rhythms of popular South African songs as Mbeki made
his entry.
"...the person who shall lead our country and our nation into the next century...", came the introduction.

Mbeki, so far successfully maintaining a safe distance from media scrutiny of his persona, exercised economy and incision with words.

He possesses maqnetic power of speech: "The people have spoken, the people have said unequivocally, the ANC leads..."

More jobs, emancipation of women, healing the racial wounds of a by-gone era, national reconciliation-- the litany poured out with a pledge that the people's
anticipation, their trust in a new mandate for the ANC is well placed. He pledged that "their will be done".

Certainly, the overwhelming showing of the electorate at the polls, particularly in favour of the ANC, demonstrates in some ways the eagerness amongst the masses to taste the fruits of freedom.
Mbeki, who has literally run the government the past five years with admirable commitment, is expected to be firmer as chief executive of this vast country with more than 40 million people of a mixed racial flavour.

The edgy white community view him with much uncertainty though; Mbeki is an enigma in the eyes of the probing world, maintaining only a small circle of
close friends yet tactfully amiable when it comes to public relations.

One media report described his facial expression as "artful" not "actual".

He does only enough to let out opinion, a frustration the media has hardly found a way around.

At the victory celebration Thursday, he did it again.
A no-question press conference where he re-defined the African renaissance, his call to modernisation and rebirth of Africa.

This is a man who has risen from the bowels of politics, born and bred in a family enmeshed in the tortuous struggle for freedom. His father Govan was an ANC leader, an activitist of the South African Communist Party who made sure his son was educated, first in Swaziland, then Britain. Political activism saw him train in military ways in the Soviet Union and a life in exile in Lusaka, Zambia.

In the background of greater men such as late ANC President Oliver Tambo, he quietly evolved, nurtured and guided by the Tambo himself; as head of
information and later of foreign affairs. It was he who would finally, tactfully work his way into the hearts of the Afrikaner right and begin to built the bridges for reconcilation-and his own base in his homeland where few saw his name quoted.

The political watchers were wrong-footed then; they had their eyes on trade unionist Cyril Ramaphosa as a possible heir to Nelson Mandela. It was Mbeki who
was to win the trust of the ANC leader, Ramaphosa consigned to the periphery of political life.

All that because the man who is to be President is no Nelson Mandela. He is far from the living legend who traverses the world mesmerising people, ending
disputes, engaging South Africa's spirit with the world and laying ground for the realisation of a dream. Rather, he is seen as the one to make it all happen.

Mbeki is said to be a workaholic, an efficient administrator who is in a hurry to empower the impoverished black majority while keeping his sights firmly on racial reconciliation.

In hailing the ANC victory, he was quick to upraise the audience of the calling to revival -- the African renaissance and to that which drives his resolve. The
next century, he said, should belong to Africa.

At that ecstatic high, the fanfare was over: "we have now arrived at the moment when, we go back to work". (SARDC)