SOUTH AFRICA: MBEKI, LION OF AFRICA?
October 2002 1450
Music 16:00
Thabo Mbeki at various public events Byrne: Is this the new lion of Africa? The man who would lead a continent out of misery. Or is this a president who struts the world stage while his own people suffer. 16:04
Thabo Mbeki talks of an African renaissance, led by the new South Africa. 16:19
Music
Children singing Singing 16:27
Byrne: Yet these kids were not even born during the years of turmoil, when the old apartheid regime fell and the African National Congress came to power. 16:32
Singing
Byrne: On a human level you have to wonder what their presidents plans mean to them. 16:47
Gloria Gloria: So here in South Africa we have changed only the Government, but the system has not been changed. Instead of changing its becoming worse. 16:58
Singing
Shanty towns Byrne: Dawn, in midwinter at the Vlakfontein, a squalid squatter camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg. 17:19
Samuel and Gloria in their home Samuel and Gloria ready their little girls for school. 17:34
Their daughter Brilliant is six, cousin to seven year old Linsela, who was adopted after being abandoned by her mother. In this small shack theres no power, no running water and very little money but love enough for all.
Samuel saying a prayer Samuel: on the way to school, God be with them. Bless the day, bless our emotions, bless our preparations. Amen. 17:59
Byrne: Each day, in pretty much every small shack here, starts the same way with a long walk to the local school, which officially does not exist. 18:09
School scenes Nearly 600 infant and primary children attend this non existent school. The teachers are parent volunteers like Gloria, who became sick of listening to the governments promises. Forty years after the first shack went up at Vlakfontein, they decided to act for themselves. 18:23
Gloria Gloria: So I dont think the government is willing to do something for this area.Byrne: Why is that?Gloria: I dont know. I dont know, really, I dont know. But as I see the situation here, its a long time for this place to not have a school 18:46
Inside class room Byrne: The community teaches its own in Spartan conditions. 19:10
Gloria: When its raining, we cant come to school, because the school is raining all inside.Byrne: In summer, it must be very, very hot. 19:15
Gloria: In summer, its very hot, and on windy days the dust is coming inside. So its not easy, but we try.
Jankie Jankie: Well, the home ministry promised in 97 that we would have a school in 2000, which didnt happen. And in 2000 we were promised 2001, 2002. Its 2002 now. They promised 2003, 2004. I think 2004 will be 2006, 2007. I think he just need people to advise 19:31
Byrne: Jankie Mukala is another parent who decided to make a difference. He volunteered as headmaster. 19:54
Jankie: I'm not here to do anybody a favour. Even if I'm not getting paid. What I'm doing is not a favour. Its what they have to have education. Its their right. 20:02
Shanty town Byrne: It was black leaders who pledged to deliver these basic rights schools, jobs, decent houses. Who also promised equality between black and white. What you see in Johannesburg today, eight years after majority rule, is something quite different. 20:16
Wende in his car driving through rich mainly white areas Wende: The threat of crime, as you can see from the electric fences and things like that, is quite high. 20:42
Byrne: Welcome to the fortress suburbs. When journalist, Tony Wende, grew up here they were white only. Now theyre whites mostly. 20:48
Wende: Nelson Mandela lives just down the hill from here. Byrne: Does he?Wende: Yeah, well his house is here. 21:58
Byrne: Not so much houses as mansions, ringed with electric fences and razor wire, guarded by dogs, and a phalanx of security companies. 21:07
Wende: If you look over here youLloyd: see theres a little guard box in the middle of the drive, and thats the community gets together and they pay the salary of a private security guard. 21:18
Hillborough township Byrne: Its an astonishing contrast between one suburb and the next the no-go township of Hillborough, just over the road. It was one of the reasons wed come to South Africa, to speak with President Mbeki. But though hed said yes to the interview, he is a famously elusive man. 21:28
People playing golf Music 21:50
Byrne: What we did was go looking for the pulse of the new South Africa, starting with the new black middle class, which we found where else on the golf course. 21:58
Music
Louis Louis: It really started as a revolution of some kind, you know, guys saying they are now playing golf. 22:14
Music
Golf playing Byrne: Louis Seeca is a rolled gold example of black mobility. He grew up in the Alexandra slum he now owns his own advertising agency. 22:29
Theyre not the best golfers Ive ever seen, but given South Africas history and racial sensitivities, the game is not the point. The point is they are no longer caddying for the white man.
Music
Louis: You cant dress ordinarily, because then you can be mistaken to be a caddy.Byrne: Even a game of golf, even a round of golf Louis: Yes.Byrne: in South Africa is a political statement. 22::58
Louis: It is, it is a statement, definitely a statement. You can see with the way we dress. It is to say we are here, weve arrived, this is also our place. You know, we are part of whats happening in the world.
Byrne: They may have won the racial battle, but they are still every day in every way fighting the war. 23:20
Louis: You hear comments of, you know, white people say this country is going to the dogs. 23:27
Louis You know, theres a possibility of another Zimbabwe. You know, black people would be quite uncomfortable with that, because a lot of us believe were going to make this country work. And we want to make it work. And that reference to Zimbabwe doesnt sit very well with a lot of black people. 23:34
Michael Spicer Byrne: It doesnt sit well with white people either. Men like Michael Spicer, who sits on the board of South Africas biggest, most powerful mining company Anglo-American. 23:53
Spicer: Many people said to us in the 1980s, this society cannot make the change without apocalypse, blood shed and really the worst of revolutions. Like many of us here, who are committed to the country, said no, thats not the case, they are not the recipes here for classic revolutions. Were going to find a way through. 24:02
Mines Byrne: Anglo-American grew rich on the muscles of black miners. Now its been told it must open its ownership and its boardroom to the black majority, a process the government calls transformation. But the fact is, earlier this year Anglo transformed itself to a company headquartered in London. 24:26
boardroom As for black representation in the hallowed boardroom 24:47
Spicer Byrne: Youre an executive director of Anglo-American. How many executive directors are there? Spicer: There are about 20, I would think.Byrne: How many are white, and how many are black?Spicer: Absolutely good question. There are only a couple of blacks. The majority are.Byrne: Long way to move in that case.Spicer: Long way to move, clearly. 24:52
Mining Byrne: You can see the dilemma. Move too fast as when the government mooted black control of the companys new mining projects and investors flee. 25:12
Spicer Byrne: And your market capitalisation has ended up how much down?Spicer: At some points we were 25-30 percent down. 25:23
Mining Byrne: Move to slow and the poor feel forgotten. 25:30
Jankie Jankie: We, the thing is, we feel that this community has been deserted for a long time. 25:35
Gloria Gloria: I sometimes say its better to go back than to go forward. Its better to go to the old South Africa than the new South Africa. 25:41
ANC rally Byrne: The new South Africa was born in joy, under the inspirational leadership of Nelson Mandela. In his long shadow came Thabo Mbeki, who finally got the top job in 1999. But how do you succeed a legend? For the smart but aloof Mbeki, with great difficulty. 25:53
Sipho Seepe Sipho Seepe is one of South Africas sharpest analysts a professor of physics, and a newspaper columnist. 26:16
Sipho: Power corrupts and it corrupts absolutely when its absolute. And we are seeing the concentration of power in the hands of one person. And its being consolidated every day. 26:23
Air show display Music 26:34
Thabo Mbeki at various public events Byrne: Seepes greatest concern is with South African democracy. Thabo Mbekis practice of purging rivals and controlling all senior appointments, risks moving South Africa towards the one big man style of Zimbabwe. And activists of the apartheid struggle, he says, are too afraid to challenge Mbeki. 26:43
Sipho Super fades up Sipho Seepe Political analyst Sipho: What happened to the right to speak? And I should indicate that these are so-called tried and tested leaders, who have been in prison, but they are actually failing to stand up to the madness of this government. 27:05
Shanty town Singing 27:19
Byrne: Soweto, South Africas most famous black township. Students died in schools like Orlando High when they rebelled against the white regime. 27:36
Lazarus Lazarus: All of us township boys and girls, nobody can beat us 27:46
Byrne: Decades on, one of those students, Lazarus Serobe, no head of Sony Music, South Africa, returns to school offering a scholarship and advice. 27:51
Lazarus: We were from 76 faced with bullets and stuff, but I think you guys have an even bigger challenge, because your enemy is very silent. 28:02
Byrne: He means AIDS. Ten percent of the population is carrying the HIV virus, which President Mbeki has denied is even connected to AIDS. 28:13
Sipho: What it is exposed is one stubbornness, which in itself indicates a political crises. When you have a leader who cannot accept that he could be wrong. 28:25
Sipho But there is also a moral crisis. When you know that that refusal means that thousands of babies are being sacrificed every year. And you have a President who can be arrogantly dismissive, then you have a problem. 28:34
Class Byrne: Yet there is optimism here, too. 28:50
Girl: When I finish school, I want to go to university first, and I want to finish all my degrees. 28:59
School play yard Byrne: Delivering this better life to the young is an immense task. Almost one in two black South Africans are unemployed. The economy and the currency are in deep trouble. And the country is effectively being remade before our eyes, making those who know the faults, reluctant to criticise. 29:13
Lazarus Byrne: And what do you think of the President, Thabo Mbeki?Lazarus: I have great respect for him, you know. I think his I dont always agree with him, but I do have great respect for him.. 29:37
Louis Louis: And I mean hes succeeded to put our country on the map. He is probably the one leader that stands with the G8 leaders, you know, shoulder to shoulder, from the south of Africa. I mean thats an achievement 29:51
Music
Thabo Mbeki various public events Byrne: Thabo Mbeki has survived 27 years of exile, and impossibly popular predecessor, and is now poised to lead the African renaissance. 30:08
Music 30:18
Township street scenes Byrne: Though, as any performer can tell you, its always the home audience which is the toughest. 30:23
Gloria Gloria: People from outside countries come into South Africa, maybe they can do something better with our president and say that there is a need for a change. 30:30
Music 30:44
Credits: MBEKIS S.AFRICAReporter: Jennifer ByrneCamera: Ron FoleyEditor: Garth ThomasProducer: Mick ODonnellResearcher: Anna Bracks 30:51
October 2002 1450
Music 16:00
Thabo Mbeki at various public events Byrne: Is this the new lion of Africa? The man who would lead a continent out of misery. Or is this a president who struts the world stage while his own people suffer. 16:04
Thabo Mbeki talks of an African renaissance, led by the new South Africa. 16:19
Music
Children singing Singing 16:27
Byrne: Yet these kids were not even born during the years of turmoil, when the old apartheid regime fell and the African National Congress came to power. 16:32
Singing
Byrne: On a human level you have to wonder what their presidents plans mean to them. 16:47
Gloria Gloria: So here in South Africa we have changed only the Government, but the system has not been changed. Instead of changing its becoming worse. 16:58
Singing
Shanty towns Byrne: Dawn, in midwinter at the Vlakfontein, a squalid squatter camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg. 17:19
Samuel and Gloria in their home Samuel and Gloria ready their little girls for school. 17:34
Their daughter Brilliant is six, cousin to seven year old Linsela, who was adopted after being abandoned by her mother. In this small shack theres no power, no running water and very little money but love enough for all.
Samuel saying a prayer Samuel: on the way to school, God be with them. Bless the day, bless our emotions, bless our preparations. Amen. 17:59
Byrne: Each day, in pretty much every small shack here, starts the same way with a long walk to the local school, which officially does not exist. 18:09
School scenes Nearly 600 infant and primary children attend this non existent school. The teachers are parent volunteers like Gloria, who became sick of listening to the governments promises. Forty years after the first shack went up at Vlakfontein, they decided to act for themselves. 18:23
Gloria Gloria: So I dont think the government is willing to do something for this area.Byrne: Why is that?Gloria: I dont know. I dont know, really, I dont know. But as I see the situation here, its a long time for this place to not have a school 18:46
Inside class room Byrne: The community teaches its own in Spartan conditions. 19:10
Gloria: When its raining, we cant come to school, because the school is raining all inside.Byrne: In summer, it must be very, very hot. 19:15
Gloria: In summer, its very hot, and on windy days the dust is coming inside. So its not easy, but we try.
Jankie Jankie: Well, the home ministry promised in 97 that we would have a school in 2000, which didnt happen. And in 2000 we were promised 2001, 2002. Its 2002 now. They promised 2003, 2004. I think 2004 will be 2006, 2007. I think he just need people to advise 19:31
Byrne: Jankie Mukala is another parent who decided to make a difference. He volunteered as headmaster. 19:54
Jankie: I'm not here to do anybody a favour. Even if I'm not getting paid. What I'm doing is not a favour. Its what they have to have education. Its their right. 20:02
Shanty town Byrne: It was black leaders who pledged to deliver these basic rights schools, jobs, decent houses. Who also promised equality between black and white. What you see in Johannesburg today, eight years after majority rule, is something quite different. 20:16
Wende in his car driving through rich mainly white areas Wende: The threat of crime, as you can see from the electric fences and things like that, is quite high. 20:42
Byrne: Welcome to the fortress suburbs. When journalist, Tony Wende, grew up here they were white only. Now theyre whites mostly. 20:48
Wende: Nelson Mandela lives just down the hill from here. Byrne: Does he?Wende: Yeah, well his house is here. 21:58
Byrne: Not so much houses as mansions, ringed with electric fences and razor wire, guarded by dogs, and a phalanx of security companies. 21:07
Wende: If you look over here youLloyd: see theres a little guard box in the middle of the drive, and thats the community gets together and they pay the salary of a private security guard. 21:18
Hillborough township Byrne: Its an astonishing contrast between one suburb and the next the no-go township of Hillborough, just over the road. It was one of the reasons wed come to South Africa, to speak with President Mbeki. But though hed said yes to the interview, he is a famously elusive man. 21:28
People playing golf Music 21:50
Byrne: What we did was go looking for the pulse of the new South Africa, starting with the new black middle class, which we found where else on the golf course. 21:58
Music
Louis Louis: It really started as a revolution of some kind, you know, guys saying they are now playing golf. 22:14
Music
Golf playing Byrne: Louis Seeca is a rolled gold example of black mobility. He grew up in the Alexandra slum he now owns his own advertising agency. 22:29
Theyre not the best golfers Ive ever seen, but given South Africas history and racial sensitivities, the game is not the point. The point is they are no longer caddying for the white man.
Music
Louis: You cant dress ordinarily, because then you can be mistaken to be a caddy.Byrne: Even a game of golf, even a round of golf Louis: Yes.Byrne: in South Africa is a political statement. 22::58
Louis: It is, it is a statement, definitely a statement. You can see with the way we dress. It is to say we are here, weve arrived, this is also our place. You know, we are part of whats happening in the world.
Byrne: They may have won the racial battle, but they are still every day in every way fighting the war. 23:20
Louis: You hear comments of, you know, white people say this country is going to the dogs. 23:27
Louis You know, theres a possibility of another Zimbabwe. You know, black people would be quite uncomfortable with that, because a lot of us believe were going to make this country work. And we want to make it work. And that reference to Zimbabwe doesnt sit very well with a lot of black people. 23:34
Michael Spicer Byrne: It doesnt sit well with white people either. Men like Michael Spicer, who sits on the board of South Africas biggest, most powerful mining company Anglo-American. 23:53
Spicer: Many people said to us in the 1980s, this society cannot make the change without apocalypse, blood shed and really the worst of revolutions. Like many of us here, who are committed to the country, said no, thats not the case, they are not the recipes here for classic revolutions. Were going to find a way through. 24:02
Mines Byrne: Anglo-American grew rich on the muscles of black miners. Now its been told it must open its ownership and its boardroom to the black majority, a process the government calls transformation. But the fact is, earlier this year Anglo transformed itself to a company headquartered in London. 24:26
boardroom As for black representation in the hallowed boardroom 24:47
Spicer Byrne: Youre an executive director of Anglo-American. How many executive directors are there? Spicer: There are about 20, I would think.Byrne: How many are white, and how many are black?Spicer: Absolutely good question. There are only a couple of blacks. The majority are.Byrne: Long way to move in that case.Spicer: Long way to move, clearly. 24:52
Mining Byrne: You can see the dilemma. Move too fast as when the government mooted black control of the companys new mining projects and investors flee. 25:12
Spicer Byrne: And your market capitalisation has ended up how much down?Spicer: At some points we were 25-30 percent down. 25:23
Mining Byrne: Move to slow and the poor feel forgotten. 25:30
Jankie Jankie: We, the thing is, we feel that this community has been deserted for a long time. 25:35
Gloria Gloria: I sometimes say its better to go back than to go forward. Its better to go to the old South Africa than the new South Africa. 25:41
ANC rally Byrne: The new South Africa was born in joy, under the inspirational leadership of Nelson Mandela. In his long shadow came Thabo Mbeki, who finally got the top job in 1999. But how do you succeed a legend? For the smart but aloof Mbeki, with great difficulty. 25:53
Sipho Seepe Sipho Seepe is one of South Africas sharpest analysts a professor of physics, and a newspaper columnist. 26:16
Sipho: Power corrupts and it corrupts absolutely when its absolute. And we are seeing the concentration of power in the hands of one person. And its being consolidated every day. 26:23
Air show display Music 26:34
Thabo Mbeki at various public events Byrne: Seepes greatest concern is with South African democracy. Thabo Mbekis practice of purging rivals and controlling all senior appointments, risks moving South Africa towards the one big man style of Zimbabwe. And activists of the apartheid struggle, he says, are too afraid to challenge Mbeki. 26:43
Sipho Super fades up Sipho Seepe Political analyst Sipho: What happened to the right to speak? And I should indicate that these are so-called tried and tested leaders, who have been in prison, but they are actually failing to stand up to the madness of this government. 27:05
Shanty town Singing 27:19
Byrne: Soweto, South Africas most famous black township. Students died in schools like Orlando High when they rebelled against the white regime. 27:36
Lazarus Lazarus: All of us township boys and girls, nobody can beat us 27:46
Byrne: Decades on, one of those students, Lazarus Serobe, no head of Sony Music, South Africa, returns to school offering a scholarship and advice. 27:51
Lazarus: We were from 76 faced with bullets and stuff, but I think you guys have an even bigger challenge, because your enemy is very silent. 28:02
Byrne: He means AIDS. Ten percent of the population is carrying the HIV virus, which President Mbeki has denied is even connected to AIDS. 28:13
Sipho: What it is exposed is one stubbornness, which in itself indicates a political crises. When you have a leader who cannot accept that he could be wrong. 28:25
Sipho But there is also a moral crisis. When you know that that refusal means that thousands of babies are being sacrificed every year. And you have a President who can be arrogantly dismissive, then you have a problem. 28:34
Class Byrne: Yet there is optimism here, too. 28:50
Girl: When I finish school, I want to go to university first, and I want to finish all my degrees. 28:59
School play yard Byrne: Delivering this better life to the young is an immense task. Almost one in two black South Africans are unemployed. The economy and the currency are in deep trouble. And the country is effectively being remade before our eyes, making those who know the faults, reluctant to criticise. 29:13
Lazarus Byrne: And what do you think of the President, Thabo Mbeki?Lazarus: I have great respect for him, you know. I think his I dont always agree with him, but I do have great respect for him.. 29:37
Louis Louis: And I mean hes succeeded to put our country on the map. He is probably the one leader that stands with the G8 leaders, you know, shoulder to shoulder, from the south of Africa. I mean thats an achievement 29:51
Music
Thabo Mbeki various public events Byrne: Thabo Mbeki has survived 27 years of exile, and impossibly popular predecessor, and is now poised to lead the African renaissance. 30:08
Music 30:18
Township street scenes Byrne: Though, as any performer can tell you, its always the home audience which is the toughest. 30:23
Gloria Gloria: People from outside countries come into South Africa, maybe they can do something better with our president and say that there is a need for a change. 30:30
Music 30:44
Credits: MBEKIS S.AFRICAReporter: Jennifer ByrneCamera: Ron FoleyEditor: Garth ThomasProducer: Mick ODonnellResearcher: Anna Bracks 30:51