From euphoria and fortification to
We take a look at presidents Mandela, Mbeki, Zuma and Ramaphosa and their contribution – or lack thereof – to a democratic South Africa
The Government of National Unity, led by Nelson Mandela, faced a daunting task when it took office after the first democratic elections on 27 April 1994.
President Mandela’s first cabinet contained members of all the parties that had secured more than 10% of the vote — the ANC, the National Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) — and was set up in terms of the interim Constitution.
The previously warring parties had to lead the process of building a nation — in the cabinet, in parliament and in the streets — and also had to create a new civil service, education, health and welfare systems, defence force, intelligence service and police force.
Under apartheid, separate administrations existed for white, black, coloured and Indian citizens, with the bulk of resources channelled into meeting the needs of white people, who made up only 13% of the population.
In 1994, there were 19 racially and ethnically based education departments, all designed to perpetuate apartheid, which had to be combined into a single, unified education system with one curriculum.
The country also lacked a unified housing provision system, while at a municipal level the spatial apartheid that had influenced town planning since the days of colonialism had to be undone.
Just over half of South African households had electricity, 14 million people had no running water and 21 million had no sanitation in 1994 because of racially skewed service provision.
Members of the first parliament were also tasked with drafting a Constitution for the new republic, in addition to replacing apartheid legislation with new laws based on justice and equity.
In Kwazulu-natal, where political violence between the ANC and IFP continued after the elections, they also had to consolidate a peace process to try to end the killings, and the culture of impunity that had prevailed through nearly a decade of state-sponsored violence.
South Africa was also broke as a result of years of isolation and the cost of fighting a civil war, and the new administration introduced the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) as its economic policy centrepiece.
A period of rapid delivery of lowcost housing followed, which began with 60 000 houses in 1994 and peaked at 235 635 houses in the 1998-99 financial year, one of the highlights of the first administration in terms of delivering tangible benefits introduced in terms of ANC policy.
New municipalities were proclaimed in areas where none existed, while within existing councils, racially defined wards had to be demarcated along geographic lines, as did services including electricity, water and waste reticulation.
Derek Hanekom, who served as minister of land affairs in Mandela’s cabinet, recalled the first administration as “a very exciting period, a period where hopes were high and the enthusiasm was high”.
Policy clarity and a sense of unity in the ANC, along with an ability to make compromises and “find ways around problems”, allowed progress to take place despite “challenging moments”.
Hanekom said that although deputy president Thabo Mbeki had played a strong role in the Mandela administration, the first president’s management of a multi-party cabinet had been “superb”.
As a result, they had remained on board after the National Party pulled out in the wake of the adoption of the permanent Constitution on 8 May 1996.
Hanekom said the first administration had believed that it had the ability to bring about major change in people’s lives.
“We were aware that there was this massive challenge, but we came in confident — maybe overconfident — knowing that we could turn things around,” he said.
“A lot changed in a very short time — and an incredible amount was achieved in those first five years. On the land reform side, within a year we had passed a restitution Act. Nothing like that had ever happened before. We made mistakes as we went along, but we made a massive change,” Hanekom said.
For all the progress, it was during the first administration that corruption in the state and the governing party first became apparent, with the advent of the notorious arms deal, which cost South Africa R142 billion by the time it was paid off in 2020.
A major shift in economic policy took place in 1996 with the introduction of the Gear policy (Growth, Employment and Redistribution) aimed at getting South Africa on a 6% growth path by 2000.
The shift was the result of the ascendancy in the ANC of Mbeki, who believed the RDP to be too idealistic and too heavily influenced by the left in the party, and who went on to become president in 1999.
The decision was unpopular with Mbeki’s rivals in the governing party — and its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and trade union federation Cosatu — and would come back to haunt him when they joined forces to oust him at the party’s 2007 conference in Polokwane.
The Mbeki years
If Mandela’s presidency was about reconciliation and giving birth to a constitutional democracy, Mbeki’s was about consolidating it — and about defining South Africa’s role as a leader in continental and international affairs. Mandela was about nation-building, Mbeki built the state.
He focused on South Africa’s economic growth, with the government making its first attempts at privatisation, with some municipal services outsourced at council level as a first step. It was South Africa’s strongest period of economic growth, a feat never achieved by his successors. Together with his finance minister, Trevor Manuel, the two ANC leaders were a formidable combination and the most successful for the South African economy, despite the opposition to the “96 Class Project” from the left in the party and the alliance partners.
South Africa experienced 36 consecutive quarters of positive economic growth during the period in which Mbeki was president and Manuel was finance minister.
Unemployment during the Mbeki years averaged 24.8%, with the lowest level achieved being 22.525% in 2008.
Poverty levels also decreased during his two terms of office.
During Mbeki’s tenure, strong economic growth, fiscal consolidation and good governance of both stateowned enterprises and departments had a positive effect on the country’s rating.
This meant the country significantly reduced its debt-to-gdp ratio.
South Africa punched above its weight on the continent. Pretoria ensured that there was a regional hegemony, evidenced by the fact that South African companies such as MTN were to become multinationals, expanding across the continent during this period.
Mbeki’s leadership resulted in the ANC receiving a two-thirds majority in the 1999 national elections, numbers that had not been achieved by Mandela.
The ANC also did well in provincial elections. It kept the seven provinces it already controlled and unseated the National Party in the Western Cape and the IFP in Kwazulu-natal. Coalitions would be needed in both provinces.
This period also saw the rise of the black middle class. In 2007, Mbeki’s then economic adviser Joel Netshitenzhe called it the “real tsunami in South Africa.”
Mbeki was also credited for his work on the continent and abroad.
South Africa was involved in negotiations between the United States and Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq, while Mbeki played a leading role during the formation of the African Union, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the African Peer Review.
While Mbeki excelled in these areas, his denialist stance on HIV/ Aids was the low-water mark of his administration, delaying the provision of antiretroviral drugs, a decision that cost thousands of lives.
Mbeki’s consolidation of power made him many enemies in the ANC and among its alliance partners, and this “coalition of the wounded” ousted him at the party conference in Polokwane in 2007 and replaced him with Jacob Zuma.
Mbeki’s alleged abuse of the organs of state in the prosecution of Zuma over bribes he collected from arms dealer Thint and his financial adviser Schabir Shaik would result in his recall by the party shortly thereafter.
The failure by Mbeki’s administration to invest in Eskom’s power station fleet after being asked to do so in 1998 — and to address the energy crisis in its early stages — contributed greatly to South Africa’s current precarious electricity situation.
In 2006, after a spate of electricity failures, Mbeki declared that “there is no electricity crisis”, saying the situation presented an opportunity for the private sector to invest in the energy sector.
A year later, in November 2007, South Africa experienced its first wave of load-shedding, which lasted until January 2008 — and which still threatens the country’s economy today.
The Zuma years
Zuma’s presidency was marked by the worst corruption and the capture of the state in democratic South Africa’s history. He was captaining the ship as state agencies were hollowed out and the state-owned entities and assets looted and collapsed.