Mandela Admits Slowness of Reform, Warns of Haste : South Africa: Although he vows to provide ‘visible change,’ others say president is ‘walking a tightrope.’

The message was simple, and the setting supreme, for a guerrilla group turned democratic government.

Here in the birthplace of the African National Congress, in a province that remains a stronghold of right-wing whites, President Nelson Mandela warned Saturday that his new government must provide “visible change” to improve people’s lives next year.

“For, proud as we should be of the achievements made, the reality is that democratic forces in our country have captured only elements of political power,” Mandela told the first ANC national conference since sweeping free elections nearly eight months ago. “South Africa is not yet out of the woods.”

Social change is too slow in coming, Mandela said, and new legislation to redress the wrongs of apartheid is taking “longer than the situation demanded.”

He warned that the democratic revolution that ended statutory white supremacy is not over.

“We have to contend with rear-guard resistance from the parties of apartheid and white privilege, from influential elements within the civil service and the security Establishment,” he said.

Destabilizing agents are still present in “the ANC and the rest of the democratic movement, universities, the media and other institutions,” he added.

Mandela also criticized the ANC, however, for the confusion that followed the election and the initial creation of democratic government structures.

“We were disorganized and behaved in a manner that could have endangered the revolution,” he said.

Mandela’s 75-minute keynote address drew raucous cheers, chants and songs from the 2,800 delegates in a hall at the University of the Orange Free State. Whether his promise for concrete change is more than rhetoric, however, remains to be seen.

The slow pace of the government’s ambitious five-year reconstruction and development program has less to do with political directives than the sobering reality of trying to transform a nation saddled with 50% black unemployment and appalling inequalities in land, health care, education and housing.

And there is rising resentment from the mostly black ANC members, who argue that Mandela’s fervent appeals for reconciliation with whites since the April election have blinded him to the immediate needs of disadvantaged blacks.

“There is a sense of impatience from the grass-roots level that delivery (of tangible improvements) is not taking place fast enough,” ANC spokesman Carl Niehaus said. “The message is we are overly concerned with the white community.”

But Niehaus said the ANC will not change its current economic or social policies.

“The effect of moving too fast will be worse than moving too slow. The government is sticking to its guns on that,” he said.

So far, at least, there has been little evidence that public discontent or disillusionment have threatened Mandela’s remarkable popularity or the national consensus behind his leadership of a coalition government.

Political violence has fallen sharply. Labor unrest, an unsettling mutiny by former ANC guerrillas, small-scale land invasions by urban squatters, continuing township rent boycotts and other problems have proved to be teething problems for the new democracy, rather than major crises. And growing criticism of several lackluster Cabinet ministers has yet to rub off on Mandela.

A nationwide poll released last week, for example, showed his popularity not only remains astronomically high among blacks but has now risen substantially among whites.

Support has fallen sharply, the poll found, for the once-mighty National Party headed by former President Frederik W. de Klerk, who has largely disappeared from public view in his role as deputy president under Mandela.

But delegates said Mandela still faces a difficult challenge in the months ahead.

“He is walking a tightrope now,” said Phakamisa Siyongwana, a 27-year-old delegate from Kwamagxaki in the Eastern Cape. “On the one side is the right wing. And on the other, the people’s needs are urgent.”

Grantham Steenkamp, a delegate from Hopetown in the Northern Cape, warned that people’s “patience is wearing thin.”

“I tell them what we need is time,” he said. “The apartheid government ruled for 40 years. The new government is ruling just seven months. Give us time.”

But another delegate, Marics Masoetsa, said time is running out.

“Many people are feeling neglected and say they are being ignored by the people they put in power,” he said. “They say the changes are too slow, and the leaders are too lenient with the whites who are resisting.”

At a press conference in Johannesburg last week to launch his new autobiography, “A Long Walk to Freedom,” Mandela justified his attempts to assuage white fears to stem flight of capital and to avoid a violent backlash.

“We understand the criticism that we were paying attention to the whites,” he said. “These people do not understand that the transition from white domination to democracy did not happen easily.”

Citing a “clear danger of civil war,” he said, “We had to tell the whites, ‘You have nothing to fear from an ANC government.’ ”

After taking office in May, the government mandated a series of high-profile but relatively easy reforms, including feeding programs for schoolchildren, free medical care for pregnant women and free education for children starting school next year. Under a new land restoration law, blacks have begun to reclaim and resettle land seized under apartheid.

But in two recent visits to bleak squatter shantytowns, Mandela publicly acknowledged that he has yet to deliver the housing, jobs, water projects and other tangible benefits promised during the election campaign. The cheering crowds appeared not to mind.

The five-day ANC conference, which has the theme “From Resistance to Reconstruction and Nation Building,” will focus on internal party matters and broad tactics and policies for the next three years. Most of the meetings are behind closed doors, and most major decisions have already been made.

The delegates will elect a six-member national executive committee Monday. Few surprises are likely. Mandela is certain to be reelected ANC president, and Thabo Mbeki will be reelected deputy president. Mbeki is Mandela’s second in command in government and his heir apparent for the 1997 elections.