Leader Vows to Improve the Lives of South Africans

South African President Thabo Mbeki vowed Friday to intensify his government’s fight against the country’s AIDS epidemic, restore land to thousands of families evicted under apartheid, and work to ensure a fair presidential election in neighboring Zimbabwe.

In an hourlong “state of the nation” address to mark the reopening of Parliament following its holiday recess, Mbeki promised concrete programs that would help improve the lives of South Africans.

“This year the government will work further to reduce the level of poverty in our society, . . . to develop our greatest resource, our people,” said the president, a British-educated economist who won office in 1999 in the country’s second democratic election.

But critics said Mbeki’s speech missed a prime opportunity to give specifics on how to come to grips with AIDS and unemployment and how to temper a political crisis in Zimbabwe that could ultimately have dire repercussions in South Africa.

A ‘Missed Opportunity’

“There was a business-as-usual approach to the major crises that need to be addressed. I thought it was a massive missed opportunity,” said Tony Leon, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance.

Mbeki said his government would step up its campaign against HIV, which infects about 10% of South Africa’s 45 million people, by focusing on prevention through lifestyle changes. He noted that work would continue at 18 pilot sites to monitor the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs that medical experts say can help prevent the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, from a mother to her newborn.

The president said the government had initiated discussions with some pharmaceutical companies to “examine new ways of making drugs more affordable and to strengthen our health infrastructure.”

However, the government has so far balked at the wide-scale distribution of anti-AIDS drugs, citing safety and cost concerns. A coalition of health lobby groups won a court order in December requiring the government to offer antiretroviral medication to all who have HIV. But the government is appealing the decision.

Some observers expressed disappointment over the lack of a new initiative on AIDS in Mbeki’s speech and the refusal to acknowledge the urgent need to deal with the epidemic.

“AIDS is the biggest challenge, the major disaster facing this country, and we would have wished for something more specific and far-reaching,” said Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a minister in Mbeki’s coalition Cabinet and leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party.

“If he doesn’t provide the kids [with anti-AIDS drugs] today, it means that the classrooms he plans to build will not be occupied,” said Bantu Holomisa, president of the United Democratic Movement, an opposition party. “If he doesn’t provide these drugs today, the homes he says he is going to build, nobody is going to occupy those homes.”

Trumpeting the strides South Africa has made since apartheid ended with all-race elections in 1994, Mbeki said the government had built 1.2 million homes, redistributed more than 2.5 million acres of land to the poor, and provided running water for 7 million people and electricity for 3.5 million.

“During the past year, our country has, in real terms and within its means, moved further forward toward a society free of poverty and underdevelopment,” Mbeki said.

He promised that a program to restore land to thousands of black families, dispossessed under apartheid, would be completed within three years. The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, established in 1996, has about 69,000 land claims to deal with and has been widely criticized for moving too slowly. Strapped for cash, it settled just 49 claims in its first three years, although the pace has rapidly increased.

Mbeki also promised tax cuts and increases in social welfare grants to improve the lot of the country’s underprivileged. But he did not mention that at least 1 million jobs have been lost in the last five years, critics pointed out.

“He didn’t come out in the open as to how he is going to combat the very high rate of unemployment,” said Holomisa, the opposition politician. “I would have expected him to announce some more programs for the state to intervene in the economy.”

Mbeki also said South Africa would dispatch observers within a week to monitor the presidential election in Zimbabwe.

“In pursuit of stability in our region, we will work tirelessly to support the people of Zimbabwe in their quest to hold free and fair elections,” he said.

But critics spoke out against Mbeki’s failure to take a tougher stance on what they say is state-sponsored violence perpetuated by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe--in office since the nation’s independence from Britain in 1980--against anyone who opposes him.

Too Soft on Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwe-watchers say the scale of intimidation and preelection fraud surrounding voter registration makes it impossible for the March 9-10 poll to be fair.

“How do you get a legitimate election, or a legitimate government elected, where the press is muzzled, where it is against the law to criticize the president against whom there is much to criticize, and in a situation where millions of Zimbabweans have been disenfranchised?” asked Leon, the Democratic Alliance leader. “I don’t think that spells out free and fair elections. But [Mbeki] didn’t actually say that the real crisis there is a crisis of the denial of democracy by the very government which is meant to uphold it.”

As the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe deteriorates, observers warned of a ripple effect in South Africa if impoverished Zimbabweans flood the neighboring country in search of food, jobs and safety. Being too soft on Mugabe’s government might also destroy Western donor support for Mbeki’s regional development initiatives, analysts said.

However, Mbeki said, to rapturous applause in Parliament, South Africa would continue to challenge “the undeclared doctrine of collective punishment against all Africans that seems to come into effect when one or some among our leaders stumble.”