South Africa had experienced "epoch-making progress" since the African National Congress came to power in 1994 but the "long walk" to a better life for all its citizens was not over yet, President Nelson Mandela told parliament yesterday.
Mr Mandela was delivering his last state-of-the-nation address at the opening of parliament, one in which he announced that the pending general election, the first since the election of a democratic government, would be held between May 18th and 27th.
Mr Mandela, who will vacate the Presidential Office immediately after the election, recalled that whites, fearful of the black majority, sought structural guarantees when, as a prisoner, he wrote to then president P.W. Botha calling for a negotiated settlement.
Listing progress in material welfare of the poor black majority, he cited:
The supply of safe water to three million people, reducing the number of South Africans without access to water from 30 to 20 per cent.
The supply of electricity to two million more homes, increasing the percentage of households connected to the national electricity grid from 40 to 60 per cent.
Providing telephones to another 1.3 million homes and raising the overall percentage of households with telephone from 25 to 35 per cent.
Mr Mandela admitted that the ANC-led government would not fulfil its target of a million new houses during its first five-year tenure in office. On the vital issue of crime, he admitted that it remained a serious problem but quoted statistics to demonstrate that "most serious crimes" including murder had either stabilised or decreased.
Without specifically naming them, Mr Mandela had tough words for People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad), a Muslim-based vigilante movement suspected of responsibility for a series of bomb explosions in Cape Town. What had started as a campaign against crime had degenerated into "a violent and murderous offensive against ordinary citizens and law enforcement agencies".