Cape Town — President Thabo Mbeki has proclaimed an "Age of Hope" in South Africa, in which economic growth is unparalleled and optimism high. At the same time he acknowledged serious problems in addressing the needs of the poor and lashed out at a culture of greed.
Opening the 2006 session of South Africa's Parliament in Cape Town, Mbeki drew cheers with announcements aimed at making schooling cheaper for the poor, ending apartheid-era housing patterns, restoring to blacks land seized by whites and regulating the unpopular practice of foreigners buying up properties.
Mbeki noted a recent report that South Africa has experienced more than five years of sustained growth - an upswing longer than any in the 60 years since World War II, including the 1960s boom which whites celebrated after they suppressed the first wave of resistance to apartheid. South Africans were eighth in the world in an optimism index published by Gallup International, he added. A local poll showed that 84 percent believed in a happy future for all races and 71 percent thought the government was performing well.
But, he said, only 56 percent thought the government was responding well to economic challenges, only 54 percent thought it performed its justice functions well - an allusion to perceptions of crime - and only 45 percent believed that local municipalities were doing their jobs well. The past year has seen protests sweep the country at the failures of local councils.
People expected the government to intervene to achieve the target of an annual growth rate of six percent in the "first economy" and to address poverty, underdevelopment and the marginalisation of the poor in the "second economy," Mbeki said. It is doing this through its initiative for accelerated and shared growth, led by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, he said.
Under the initiative, the public sector - working sometimes through public-private partnerships - would make big investments in the supply of electricity and water and the expansion of telecommunications. It would also pump money into underdeveloped urban and rural areas through an expanded public works programme which would improve skills and provide jobs.
Among problems which Mbeki said the government needs to address is the failure of its departments to spend all the money allocated to them each year, and to perform adequately their role as a developmental agency. Ahead of next month's municipal elections - which are expected to reflect the level of discontent with local government - he outlined steps the national government intends to take to improve the performance of municipalities.
In a single paragraph referring to HIV/Aids - the issue which, alongside poverty, constitutes South Africa's biggest crisis - Mbeki said more than 100,000 people are now receiving anti-retrovirals. South African's public and private treatment programme is one of the largest in the world, he added. (NGO activists suggest that up to half a million need treatment.)
Outlining specific proposals for government action on education, Mbeki said school fees for the poorest primary schools would be phased out. The number of maths and science graduates would be doubled by 2008.
After listing what was needed to reduce crime and improve the justice system, Mbeki said the government needs to intensify its offensive against corruption. "Much that happens in our society encourages the entrenchment of a value system based on personal acquisition of wealth by all means and at all costs."
On housing, he said municipalities would allocate more land for building middle- and lower-income developments nearer economic centres - reversing the apartheid practice of dumping poor people far from city centres. He called for an agreement "without further delay" to unlock 42 billion South African rands set aside by financial institutions with a view to eliminating shack settlements. And, he said, the notorious "bucket system," in which human waste is collected from people's homes every morning, must be eradicated by the end of next year.
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Mbeki hinted that white farmers resisting land claims will be subjected to stronger pressures to sell: the Minister of Land Affairs, Thoko Didiza, would review the current "willing-buyer willing-seller" policy as well as mechanisms for acquiring land. She would also "regulate conditions under which foreigners buy land." But he added, this would be done in line with international norms and practices.
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