President Mandela was correct to focus on
reconciliation as the cornerstone of his short presidency.
He was incorrect, and missed a great
opportunity, however, in ignoring or downplaying the need for redress or transformation. Given
his moral standing, a strong push for redress coming from him would have been
much easier to sell to white business and foreign investors. Quite frankly, the
whole world expected it and therefore resistance would have been muted.
Unfortunately, President Mbeki, while doing
something about it, focused too much on economic orthodoxy for his efforts to
bear much fruit.
President Zuma, quite frankly, lacks the
stature of both Presidents Mandela and Mbeki, and given that this ‘renewed’
push for “radical economic transformation” is coming hard on the heels of much
publicised alleged wrong-doing, even the ANC seems to question his motives or
timing. His push is also coming late in his presidency, when for all intents
and purposes he’s a lame duck president.
The redress project, however, can never be
postponed forever. Sooner or later it has to happen. Otherwise, liberation and
the NDR would surely have been betrayed.
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