President Thabo Mbeki said little on Wednesday to answer the questions around Aids, Zimbabwe and crime posed to him during the two days of debate on his State of the Nation address.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Mbeki said consensus was reached during the debate on the challenges facing South Africa.
”This encompassed issues of poverty and unemployment, crime, health, including the matter of HIV and Aids, education and training, economic growth and development, housing, corruption, moral regeneration and so on.”
On ”domestic issues”, Mbeki said South Africa has failed to eradicate the legacy of colonialism and apartheid during its first decade of democracy.
Quoting from an editorial written by Engineering News editor Martin Creamer, Mbeki said: ”The past 10 years also have to be viewed simply as a good start in building true racial, social and economic liberation. Much still has to be done. We are merely at the end of the beginning.”
Mbeki said that while it is a good sign there is consensus about the challenges facing South Africa, each of the parties has a different view on what should be done to respond to these problems.
”The forthcoming elections will provide our people with an opportunity to decide which of the various party responses to these challenges they consider the most credible, and which among our various parties they consider the most dependable, as our country continues the struggle to eradicate the legacy of centuries of racism and apartheid.”
He said those who believe the situation is worse than it was a decade ago will have the opportunity to convince the people this is true.
The government has, in the past decade, put in place a range of critical policies that will enable the country successfully to confront the challenges identified during the debate.
”It would indeed have been a signal failure on our part if, in 10 years, we had failed to produce the policies that we need to move our country from its apartheid past to the prosperous non-racial and non-sexist democracy visualised in our Constitution. I am certain that this has not been one of our failures,” he said.
Mbeki said South Africa should rejoice with the people who were returning to District Six, in Cape Town, on Wednesday.
He also congratulated a student from the Fezeka Senior Secondary school in Guguletu, who, having won a worldwide essay competition, would shortly leave to represent Africa as a student astronaut at Nasa in the United States.
”May I acknowledge Nomathemba Kontyo, a very special visitor in the galleries today.”
He also drew attention to Sanelisiwe Sambo, from Limpopo, who at the age of 14 was the youngest person to register at the University of South Africa.
He said such achievements show South Africa is moving forward towards true racial, social and economic liberation.
In closing, Mbeki said Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi had correctly pointed out that if South Africa failed at reconciliation, it would not be for want of trying.
”I am certain that all of us agree with him that ‘the really new South Africa must be built with the commitment and sacrifices of all, to make it become a decent and prosperous place for all’,” he said. — Sapa