The euphoric celebrations are over
and South Africa’s President
Thabo Mbeki is back hard at work in his ornate gothic offices in the Union Buildings in Pretoria, a host of national, regional and international issues demanding attention — issues which will impact on southern Africa and the continent for years to come.

Sworn in at a glittering ceremony on 16 June, the Mbeki era will unquestionably be different in style from those of his charismatic predecessor, Nelson Mandela. But the policies and programmes of the African National Congress (ANC) government will continue albeit with a much greater sense of urgency and transformation because the people have given them an “unequivocal” mandate for another five years.

ANC goes into the 400-seat Parliament with 266 seats after the June 2 marathon election, one short of a two-thirds majority. The remaining seats are split among 12 other parties with the white liberal Democratic Party (DP) narrowly taking the position of Official Opposition with 38 seats, just ahead of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) which has 34.

What this election showed is the maturity of South Africans less than a decade after half a century of racist apartheid. The extremes are falling away, the ANC is hugely popular and the voters are filled with optimism. The system works. As an emotional Mbeki said when he stepped before his frenzied supporters out in the Mid Rand’s ANC offices “the women, the poor, black and white, all colours and all sectors of South Africa have unequivocally given ANC a further mandate.” He told cheering ANC members “the poorest of the poor have said they trust ANC to help them out of their conditions of misery. The masses of our people have mandated us to maintain the peace and stability which democracy and good governance have bro-ught our country.

He also pledged to fight rampant corruption within his own ANC ranks and raging urban crime but said the success of this campaign would depend on community support and participation. He raised the question about what has gone wrong with morality in South Africa where corruption and crime including violence and sexual abuse have loomed large. Voters were obviously convinced that Mbeki was the right man to fill Mandela’s shoes, although Mbeki himself says “I will never grow my feet nor wear flowered shirts” in reference to Mandela’s relaxed mode of dress.
Patience was a virtue in the slow moving queues

Mbeki is generally credited in London and New York as the architect of post-apartheid reforms in the economic, mining and financial sectors which have opened South Africa to the global economy. Business seems confident in the GEAR (growth, employment and redistribution) programme but anxiously awaits, as do most voters, to see it delivered in concrete terms. Mbeki has spoken often of an African renaissance, of transformation both at home and in southern Africa and the continent in concrete terms. That means a better life for a country, a region and a continent that is at a crossroads. The ANC, the people said in overwhelming terms, is the party that can start delivering the benefits of democracy — better jobs, houses, health, education, massively reduced crime and corruption — and it must do it soon. As one analyst put it: “The feel-good days of Mandela are over. It’s time to roll up the sleeves and go to work.”

Pressure from allies in the trade union movement forced Mandela to temper his economic policy of strict fiscal discipline and debt reduction in the hope of creating more jobs. Mbeki’s regime will face even more severe pressure.

Along with unemployment come the attendant social problems of crime, spousal and child abuse, corruption, decay and poverty. With the bulk of the national budget going either for salaries or debt repayment, there is simply little left to meet the aspirations of the millions of South Africans who suffered so long under apartheid and who continue to suffer. However, these problems and many more are solvable, the masses decided on June 2.