Few people in recorded history have been the subject of such high expectations; still fewer have matched them; Mandela has exceeded them. We knew of his fortitude before he left jail; we have since experienced his extraordinary reserves of goodwill, his sense of fun and the depth of his maturity. As others' prisoner, he very nearly decided the date of his own release; as president, he has wisely chosen the moment of his going. Any other nation would consider itself privileged to have his equal as its leader. His last full year in power provides us with an occasion again to consider his achievement in bringing and holding our fractious land together.
- Mail & Guardian , December 24, 1998

 

South Africa's first five years of democracy are inextricably linked to the towering figure of Nelson Mandela , who had the unenviable task of presiding over attempts to redress the atrocities and imbalances of racial oppression while simultaneously fostering reconciliation. On one hand he had to mollify the fears of many whites who, having seen their political privileges stripped away, imagined an imminent collapse of lifestyle. And on the other, he had to temper the impatience of a black majority that, having finally achieved civil rights, found it hard to understand why economic advancement wasn't following quickly. The achievements of the government, however, were more uneven than those of its leader.

Soon after taking power, Mandela announced the Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP), which set health, housing, education and economic growth as its priorities. This was to be realized in the electrifying of 350,000 homes in the ensuing year, the provision of decent education for all children, and in the building of 2.5 million houses by the end of the decade. But in August 1994, Mandela's keynote address, outlining the government's progress in its first hundred days of office, was greeted by industrial action protests at the slow pace of change. By the end of 1997, only 350,000 houses had been built, though the introduction of clean, piped water and electricity to over a million homes were significant successes.

Despite the victory of liberal democratic principles embodied in the 1994 election, South Africa still displayed a singular lack of the trappings associated with civil society. Crime , sensationalized daily in the media, continued to dog the country. In the closing stages of the ANC's first five years, the police were reporting an average of 52 murders a day, a rape every half hour (including a frightening rise in child rape), and one car theft every nine minutes. Simmering behind the scenes was a less obvious threat to the social fabric, a culture of non-payment of municipal rates . This had begun as a form of anti-apartheid political action during the 1980s, but by the post-apartheid era it had become a way of life, with nearly eighty percent of township residents witholding payment.

In response, Mandela called for a " new patriotism " and attacked the "culture of rapacity" that appeared to underlie these problems. But a popular sense that whites weren't doing enough to redress the imbalances, and that many officials had forgotten about liberation and were simply riding the gravy train, did little to encourage a climate of probity. One well-publicized, but by no means isolated, example of corruption involved the Reverend Allan Boesak . A founding member of the United Democratic Front and a stalwart of the liberation struggle, in 1999 he was found guilty of misappropriating over a million rands of Danish donor funding. That March, at a Human Rights Day rally, the then deputy president Thabo Mbeki acknowledged the extent of the problem and pledged to root out "those who have smuggled themselves into the ANC not to serve the people, but to pursue their own ends."

The overriding theme of the Mandela presidency was that of reconciliation . In 1995, Mandela hosted a symbolic lunch for the wives of liberation leaders and ex-prime ministers and presidents, as well as taking tea with Betsie Verwoerd, widow of Hendrik Verwoerd. Perhaps the highlight of this policy was in May and June 1995, when the rugby union World Cup was staged in South Africa. The Springboks - for many years an international pariah due to their whites-only membership - won, watched by Mandela, sporting Springbok colours. Rapprochement was also pursued with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) , leading to a reduction in political violence in KwaZulu-Natal. The most significant side-show of the period was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission , which began sitting in 1996, set up to examine gross human rights abuses in South Africa between 1960 and 1993.

The New Constitution , approved in May 1996, ensured that South Africa would remain a parliamentary democracy with an executive president. One of the most progressive constitutions in the world, it incorporated an extensive bill of rights. The main points were the outlawing of discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, pregnancy, ethnic or social origin, sexual orientation, disability, religion, belief, culture or language; protection of freedom of religion, belief, movement, association, expression and artistic creativity; prohibition of slavery, servitude, forced labour, torture, detention without trial, violence or cruel punishment; guarantee of the right to life, banning capital punishment but permitting abortion; and the appointment of a public protector to defend individuals against maladministration.