Mandela support gathering

Music

Starts:

01:00:00:00

Wilson:  South Africa has bid farewell to its most famous 20th century hero. Nelson Mandela, a modern day colossus, has stepped into the twilight of his retirement.

00:10

Mbeki shaking hands with crowd

00:23

Wilson:  But the man who's been elected to replace him, Thabo Mbeki, has a more sober eye on what lies ahead. For the past month, South Africa's president in waiting has come face to face with the nation he'll be leading.

Mbeki:  You see, certainly among the constituency of the ANC, great enthusiasm among the people, a great sense of joy and hope. In some senses a celebration.

00:27

00:47

Mbeki

The people are convinced that something good is going to happen, that this better life which they expect is going to happen at a faster pace.

01:00

People on streets/sifting through rubbish

Singing

01:13

Wilson: Thabo Mbeki is under no illusions about the task ahead of him. He must give substance to the ambitions of its poor, hope to those still waiting for the new South Africa to arrive.

01:23

Thabo Mbeki knows that a dream deferred will ultimately explode.

01:36

Map South Africa

Singing

01:42

Wilson: Thabo Mbeki describes the ANC as a titanic African army.

01:53

Sihle in ANC office

Sihle Zikalala is one of his foot soldiers, and today the commander in chief is paying a visit.

02:00

Wilson:  It's a big day for Sihle, he's a local councillor and Thabo Mbeki is coming to his village. He's already more than an hour late, but still has to stop and pick up supporters along the way.

02:19

Jeep with security men drive past supporters

Security is tight, and not without reason. Ndwedwe has an ugly history of conflict between the ANC and its rival, Inkartha Freedom party.  But now it's reaping the dividend of political peace.

02:39

Sihle

Sihle:  You see, in the past here, I think from 1990 to 1996,it's destroyed most of the houses here, a number of people lost their life, and some evacuated their area to look for the shelter in other areas.

02:54

Wilson:   I mean someone told me that it was actually a miracle that Thabo Mbeki can come here now and it says a lot about how far South Africa has come.

03:10

Sihle:  Yes, it means a lot. It means one that we are at that situation of peace, and I can say that we are moving toward the reconciliation, the real reconciliation in South Africa.

03:17

Helicopter lands

03:322

Mbeki arrives

Mbeki:  Good morning, gentlemen, how are you this morning? Are you okay?

Wilson:   Exceptionally well. And yourself?

03:44

Mbeki:  Not too bad thanks, bit tired, but otherwise all right.

03:51

Wilson:  How's the campaign coming along?

03:54

Mbeki:  I think it's going very well... Tiring, but lots of enthusiasm among the people. It's good, isn't it?

03:56

Mbeki supporters

Wilson:  Thabo Mbeki is as new to multiparty democracy as South Africa is itself. So campaigning like this sometimes sits a little awkwardly with his image as the ANC's intellectual powerhouse. But you wouldn't think that here.

04:09

It's been an enduring criticism of Thabo Mbeki's leadership that unlike Nelson Mandela, he lacks the common touch. Comparisons to his predecessor are inevitable, but they hurt.

Pahad:  I think the problem with that kind of comparison is

04:24

Pahad

Super:

ESSOP PAHAD

Mbeki Advisor

they're not helpful. I don't believe that Thabo Mbeki will ever take a position in which he will try to emulate Mandela. He is his own person. And for him to succeed he's got to put his own personal stamp on the presidency of the country, as well as on the presidency of the ANC.

04:42

Wilson:  Here in the hills of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Thabo Mbeki must confront those people who expect the most from him. And he feels a heavy burden.

Mbeki:  You hear people saying, we want to live as the whites do.

05:10

Mbeki

And when you ask what does that mean, they say we want to have a house, which must be electrified, must have running water, I must be able to buy a TV set and run it off the mains. That's their vision. You've got to impact on the standard of living of people in that way, so that you, as I say, you pull them out of the poverty.

05:29

Mbeki at gathering among crowd

Wilson:   While Thabo Mbeki has been getting to know his people better, so too, his people have been getting better acquainted with him.

05:55

Jovial Rantau has just co-authored a well timed biography of the new president that ventilates some of the more uncomfortable stories about his rise to the top. He agrees that Thabo Mbeki hasn't got much time to make an impact.

06:04

Rantau

Rantau:  Democracy must begin to mean something for the people who were hardest hit by apartheid. People have been patient, but out there things haven't changed as fast as they wanted it to. And you can't keep people patient for more than five years. I think his main concern, and a lot of people will share that, is to make sure that people begin to feel a difference, and people begin to understand that democracy means a better life.

06:20

Mbeki addresses crowd/dancing girls

07:15

Wilson:   There aren't many votes to win in an audience of children. But the slogans of the anti-apartheid years still feature prominently in South African politics.

07:22

As much as Thabo Mbeki seeks to cut his own cloth, the legacy of the struggle is a valuable one, which he isn't afraid to trade on.

07:39

Mbeki:  You want to be able to elect the government you want and the government you love.  Our struggle and our freedom has been dominated by the ANC - you know that.  Most of the people taken to prison - leaders like Mandela - and others who died for our freedom were members of the ANC.

07:49

Girls perform dance

Singing/Whistle

08:17

Wilson:  The ANC faithful everywhere have transferred their loyalty from Nelson Mandela to Thabo Mbeki like flicking a switch. But that worries him. Africa has been poorly served by the big man syndrome. It's a trap Thabo Mbeki is desperate to avoid.

Mbeki:  You've got to make sure that you don't convey an image of yourself to the people, as somebody above them,

08:24

Mbeki

who is out of reach, who is a little god, who kind of, when they appear you need to move aside, and open the way. You want to produce the opposite reaction. And to be able to engage the people and let them feel free to raise any issue.

08:57

Mbeki addresses meeting

Wilson:  South African politics is both overt and covert. Thabo Mbeki's inner circle is a formidable team, led by his friend of more than 30 years, Essop Pahad, Mbeki has surrounded himself with some of the ANC's most impressive political operatives.

09:18

But one of the most persistent allegations is that he's ruthlessly sidelined some of the ANC's most promising leaders because of the threat they posed to his own ambition.

09:35

Pahad

Pahad:  Can you people actually produce a single shred of evidence that would give credibility to these stories. At least for me, now a single one of them have produced a single shred of evidence. What they would say to me is, ah, but Essop it's a perception. I say no, no, no, just leave perceptions alone now. Because you can't find people guilty on the basis of perception. Good grief, I mean we have to start somewhere, and that is that at least there must be some evidence for this.

09:46

Rantau

Wilson:   But Thabo Mbeki's biographer, Jovial Rantau, says Prahad's defence of his friend and boss is patently untrue.

10:21

Rantau:  It can't be true. As a politician I agree with you, anyone either in South Africa or anywhere who tells you what Essop tells you, is really just being protective and being a very good friend to somebody in a very powerful position.

10:29

Mbeki dances with two women

Music

10:47

Wilson:   Embarrassing displays of public dancing have become a rite of political passage in South Africa. Thabo Mbeki hasn't been elected for his dance floor prowess.

10:51

But it's only now that South Africans have seen Thabo Mbeki's more human side. His punishing workload contributing to the perception that South Africa's new president is more machine than man.

11:06

Pahad:  You will find that his own security will tell you that they work very, very hard. Because he works very, very hard. He starts in the morning and finishes til very late at night. So he's an exceptional, exceptionally hard worker. It's sometimes not good for the health of those of us who have to work with him.

11:29

Armoured vehicle drives through town

Wilson:   If there is one issue that affects both black and white South Africans equally, it's crime. It is eating away at the vitality of the nation. Thabo Mbeki describes it as a collapse in values.

11:49

Mbeki

Mbeki:  I think this is one of the greatest tragedies in this country, that I think deriving from the fact that you had an illegitimate government, an illegitimate system, people might have obeyed the laws because if you didn't you got arrested. They didn't feel that there was any moral force behind those laws.

12:01

Women sit on bench in Richmond

Wilson:  The small town of Richmond just up the road from Durban is an unlikely flashpoint. Unspeakable things have happened here in the name of political loyalty. This is a place where your vote can cost you your life. On the 3rd of July last year, the Richmond Tavern was full of drinkers when a lone gunman walked in.

12:35

Bullet holes in wall

FX:  Gun shots

13:00

Wilson:   For his victims, the clock stopped on the new South Africa at 7.44 that night.

13:04

Wilson and Jackie

Jackie:  As he walked in, he just opened fire, we were sitting here at this table and he shot at anybody that was in the way. Then he shot towards me and a few friends over there, and next thing he realises that I really mean business. Those people that were hit on the floor over there were taking cover, they laid down. But this guy, he turned around and shot them through the head.

13:10

Inside Jackie's Tavern

Wilson:   By the time the shooting stopped, eight people, including the deputy mayor, lay dead. The blood so thick on the floor, sawdust was needed to soak it up.

13:33

Singing

13:44

Wilson:   The festive atmosphere in Richmond belies the perpetual state of tension.

14:01

FX: 

14:14

Wilson:   It has taken more than a thousand soldiers and police to maintain any semblance of peace here. But Thabo Mbeki's message to the ANC supporters - sometimes democracy takes courage.

14:18

Mbeki addresses supporters

Mbeki:  We must not be afraid. Even for those people who come and tell you lies, and say that the secret ballot is not secret, because they will know how you voted, you say to them, we know that you are not telling the truth. We will vote as we wish.

14:36

FX:  Applause

14::56

Wilson:   After the rally, Thabo Mbeki's entourage made one final stop before leaving Richmond. He came to lay a wreath at Jackie's tavern, the president and his people. A simple gesture that at once acknowledges that the burdens of a nation have now become his own.

15:03