JEREMY LOVELL, Cape Town | Friday
SOUTH Africa’s government is busy repackaging President Thabo Mbeki after a series of public gaffes over the past year that have tarnished his image at home and abroad, analysts said this week.
And in further moves aimed at restoring confidence in Africa’s largest economy, parliament has publicly castigated two African National Congress parliamentarians for fraud and has started probing alleged corruption in a multi-billion rand arms deal.
”It is not necessarily a change of direction, but it is a change in communication strategy. Mbeki has recognised that he has to take people with him across the board,” University of Cape Town economist Iraj Abedian said.
As opinion polls showed Mbeki’s image following the rand currency’s nosedive, his handlers finally took the hint and began a charm offensive that took them to Britain and the United States and for once did not ignore the home audience.
”There is now a great understanding that local business matters. That has not been understood in the past,” Centre for Policy Studies analyst Steven Friedman said from Johannesburg.
Mbeki has incurred international outrage by questioning the link between HIV and AIDS and failing to condemn the violent land invasions in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
A spate of unsolved bombings in Cape Town, an epidemic of violent crime and the resurgence of racism that earned Mbeki the nickname of ”Two nations Thabo” because of his references to rich whites and poor blacks, added to the negative image.
Speaking off the cuff, Mbeki told business audiences in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria the land invasions in Zimbabwe were criminal and would not be tolerated in South Africa.
He recommitted South Africa to the economic mainstream and recognised the need to staunch the predominantly white brain drain and remove some of the barriers the government has erected in the way of immigrant businessmen and women.
”There has been a substantial new tone in his talks to the business community,” Stellenbosch University professor of politics Willie Breytenbach said.
”It could be a cynical manipulation of public opinion or it could indicate a real change in approach. Only time will tell which it is,” Breytenbach said. – Reuters