President Nelson Mandela marks first year in office<\/p>\n
By Brendan Boyle<\/p>\n
CAPE TOWN (Reuter): As President Nelson Mandela marked a year
\nas South Africa's first black head of state on Wednesday,
\npolitical analysts were already pondering whether it was time he
\nmoved on.<\/p>\n
Addressing a band, a few dozen soldiers and curious onlookers
\noutside his Cape Town office, Mandela, 76, recalled the parade
\nand air force fly-past that marked his inauguration in Pretoria
\non May 10 last year after South Africa's all-race elections that
\nformally ended apartheid.<\/p>\n
\"We were then at a critical point in our history. We were
\npoised between two orders, between oppression and freedom,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
In interviews linked to anniversary celebrations, Mandela,
\nwinner with former white leader F.W. de Klerk of a Nobel Peace
\nPrize, has called peace the main prize of freedom.<\/p>\n
\"I think we have done very well...we have achieved a near
\nmiracle,\" he told state television on the eve of the April 27
\nFreedom Day holiday marking the anniversary of the first
\ndemocratic elections.<\/p>\n
Politicians and political analysts do not dispute that
\nMandela, jailed for 27 years until 1990 for fighting apartheid,
\nhas done well, but some are asking whether it is time for him to
\nstep back from the front line of government.<\/p>\n
University of Cape Town political scientist Robert Shrire said
\neconomic progress was being undermined by uncertainty about the
\nsuccession after Mandela's promised retirement when South
\nAfricans take part in their next general elections in 1999.<\/p>\n
\"I think he is nearing the end of his productive period as a
\nleader and it would be useful if he would begin phasing himself
\nout over the next 12 to 18 months,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"President Mandela has played an enormously important symbolic
\nrole, but he is not up to the tough issues that need to be dealt
\nwith now,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Shrire and some senior ANC members believe Mandela has
\ndemonstrated his frailty recently with damaging errors.<\/p>\n
He was obliged to rehire his estranged wife, Winnie, for a day
\nafter a bungled dismissal triggered by her open defiance of his
\nauthority.<\/p>\n
He went out on a limb for ANC veteran and former activist
\nAllan Boesak, offering him \"a very high diplomatic post\" while
\nthe former preacher is still under police investigation for fraud
\ninvolving aid funds from abroad.<\/p>\n
And he rocked international confidence with an irritable
\nthreat to gerrymander the constitution to allow him to crack down
\non rival black leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi's rebellious KwaZulu-
\nNatal province.<\/p>\n
Mandela insists he is only an instrument of the ANC, which
\nscored a runaway 62 percent victory last April and looks
\nunbeatable in local elections in November.<\/p>\n
\"It may well be that people are concentrating too much on an
\nold man who was in prison for so long...I don't think that we
\nshould separate an individual from the team of which he is part,\"
\nhe told state television.<\/p>\n
\"President Mandela is a human being. He has to let off steam
\nsometimes,\" said a senior government source.<\/p>\n
But another person in frequent contact with Mandela told
\nReuters the president was becoming increasingly irritable and
\ndifficult to advise.<\/p>\n
\"Sometimes the president only listens to those who tell him
\nwhat he wants to hear,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/president-nelson-mandela-marks-first-year-in-office-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}