Trevor Richards: What now for the land of Mandela’s dream?

Nelson Mandela's dream for South Africa had always been uncomplicated. "We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people."

These, the opening lines of the Freedom Charter, drawn up in 1955 by the Congress of the People and adopted by the African National Congress the following year, encapsulate the dream for which Mandela spent 27 years in prison.

As the new South Africa starts its second decade, what is the status of that dream?

There are many grounds for optimism, and many grounds for pessimism. Facts and figures can be used to paint any one of a number of pictures.

On the political front it is much easier to paint a rosy picture than a gloomy one.

On the anti-apartheid campaign trail in New Zealand, I was often told that the only thing preventing a bloodbath in South Africa was apartheid. Yet the bloodbath, so expected by supporters of apartheid, never came.

Instead, 10 years after Mandela's inauguration, South Africa is politically stable. All the old race laws have been abolished. The constitution is arguably the most progressive in the world. The judiciary is independent. There is a free press and numerous opposition political parties - 20 contested this year's national elections.

How South Africa moved from pariah state to rainbow nation is due in large part to the political savvy and humanity of the ANC leadership. Many players in the tense 1990-1994 drama deserve special mention, but none more so than Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In Cape Town I went to satirist Pieter Dirk-Uys' latest show. It opens with the line, "What would have happened to South Africa, and to you, if Nelson Mandela had come out of jail angry?"

But he didn't. Important Cabinet posts were given to leading political opponents. F.W. de Klerk became Second Deputy President. The Inkatha Freedom Party's Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi was made Minister of Home Affairs.

Mandela's hands reached out in a spirit of reconciliation to Afrikaaner nationalists. By 1996 the threat posed to the new state by both extremist white nationalists and the so-called black-on-black violence had dissolved.

In the period since 1990, reconciliation has been practised more by blacks than whites. Many whites give the impression that in allowing a universal franchise, they had done enough.

Some who do not like the new South Africa are emigrating to Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Too many bring attitudes sanctioned by nothing except the past. Some whites find nothing offensive in asking where they should live in Auckland "to avoid the Polynesians".

Of those who stay, there are a number with an ambivalent attitude to the new South Africa. In some of the plush northern Johannesburg suburbs, residents have barricaded public roads to minimise unwanted entry. The action has been declared unconstitutional and this ruling is being appealed against. But the roads remain closed.

On the economic front, the picture is diverse. Some argue that changes in personal income reflect the positive transition that is taking place. It is forecast that in the period 1960-2005 personal disposable per capita income for blacks will increase by 208 per cent. For coloureds the increase will be 177 per cent, for Indians 384 per cent and for whites 66 per cent.

In 10 years, 1.6 million houses have been built. Nine million South Africans who did not have clean, safe water in 1994 now have it. Between 1996 and 2002, 3.4 million new electricity connections were made to households. Millions of children now have free health care. Also on the positive side, South Africa's economic stability stands out among developing nations. From 1994 to 2003, it enjoyed real gross domestic product growth every year.

But those critical of the economic picture point out that the gap between rich and poor remains massive. On average, white-headed households earn about six times as much as the average black-headed household. Many Africans are unemployed. South Africa's unemployment rate is between 25 and 35 per cent.

In 1990, the incidence of HIV-Aids was less than 1 per cent. Today, estimates of the adult population infected range from 15 to 21 per cent.

Overall, how much cause is there for optimism? South African journalist Allister Sparks expresses the view of many: "When you have just escaped Armageddon, that is not the time to become a pessimist."

Yet a number of South Africans who were involved in the anti-apartheid struggle, and who have remained active in organisations promoting a more just and equitable South Africa, despair.

In South Africa, white and black, rich and poor, Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Jew, meet each other every day. The meetings are often fraught. It often seems that before any progress can be made, 350 years of history have first to be negotiated.

Just as interpersonal relations are affected by the past, so, too, is the country's capacity to eradicate poverty, for the new South Africa has been built on the social and economic foundations of the old South Africa. The challenges Pretoria faces are massive.

Some years ago, someone painted on a township wall in Port Elizabeth, "The road to the future is always under construction." Most South Africans accept that there is no magic wand to usher in the promised land.

Ten years after liberation, most South Africans are prepared to continue to support their Government, albeit not always uncritically - but after 20 years? The progress which marked the first 10 years of the new South Africa needs to gather momentum if Mandela's dream of a rainbow nation at peace with itself is to be realised.

* Former Halt All Racist Tours leader Trevor Richards visited South Africa last month to receive the Order of the Supreme Companions of O. R. Tambo, the highest award given to non-South Africans, for his contribution to the campaign against apartheid.