Where to now, South Africa?

As the black leaders who broke apartheid pass from the scene, the country's political direction hangs in the balance.

By John Hughes

from the August 31, 2007 edition

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Cape Town, South Africa - Against the magnificent background of Table Mountain, workmen on Cape Town's seafront are busy building a huge new sports stadium.

It is where some of the World Cup soccer games will be played in South Africa in 2010. Teams from more than 30 nations will compete in various southern African cities over a period of six weeks. The games are expected to bring to South Africa some 200,000 soccer fans from elsewhere in Africa, and 300,000 from the rest of the world. Several thousand visiting reporters will feature South Africa on television and in newspapers and news magazines around the globe. In other cities besides Cape Town, new stadiums are being built, airports expanded, suburban railway lines constructed, and there is a general sprucing up.

It will be a tremendous showcase and the government looks upon it, rather as China does the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, as a sort of coming-of-age opportunity for South Africa as a respectable member of the international community.

South Africa has a dramatic story to recount. After decades of ostracism for its abhorrent racial policies, it has become transformed into a truly democratic multiracial society, with clearly the most advanced economy on the African continent.

On the negative side, it has a serious problem with urban crime, which the government vows to clean up by 2010.

There is also a high incidence of AIDS.

But the critical question confronting the nation is what political direction it will take as a generation of black leaders that broke the bondage of apartheid 13 years ago passes from the scene. The leader of this group, many of whom spent years in exile, is Nelson Mandela. He was imprisoned in South Africa for 27 years, much of it on Robben Island, within view of Cape Town. He emerged without rancor to head a unity government dominated by blacks but pledged to treat blacks and whites equally. While his influence remains strong, he has become more of an elder statesman. On the occasion of his 89th birthday last month, he announced the creation of a consultative group of elder statesmen – including Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, and four Nobel Peace Prize winners – to tackle world problems.

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