SOUTH AFRICA: Media tycoon Anthony O'Reilly has hit out at critics of the South African government, describing its progress since the end of apartheid as a "miracle".
In a rare public intervention in a country's political sphere, the chief executive of Independent News and Media rejected suggestions that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) was heading off its current ideological course.
"The only 'ism' that reliably applies to the governing party is pragmatism - a principled pragmatism in pursuit of an ambitious agenda to redress poverty, unequal opportunity and the other legacies of the country's history."
Responding to what he described as a "rash of commentators" who had predicted gloom for South Africa, Sir Anthony noted: "The ruling ANC meets in December next year to select a new leader who, in the nature of things, would be expected to succeed to the presidency 18 months later. I have no doubt that South Africans will choose the right leader to oversee the next phase of their development when the time comes."
International investors have expressed concern at the possibility of a more socialist or populist government if controversial ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma succeeds Thabo Mbeki as president. Mr Zuma has garnered the support of large sections of the South African Communist Party and the trade union umbrella group Cosatu.
But Sir Anthony said the government's pragmatic nature was "unlikely to change, whoever is chosen as the ANC's presidential candidate next year". He added: "Are we about to witness an ideological shift in the ANC? I don't think so."
Sir Anthony, whose company is the largest newspaper publisher in South Africa, owning 14 titles, made his views known in a near full-page article yesterday in papers belonging to his local media stable. The same article was reproduced in the London Independent, which is also owned by Dublin-based Independent News and Media. Dismissing what he described as "doomsday artists", Sir Anthony downplayed fears surrounding violent crime and defended the government against various charges of incompetence.
"Mbeki's government constitutes many highly talented and focused ministers," he wrote. "South Africa's HIV/Aids programme gets serious and uninformed criticism around the world, but from what I personally have observed, the government is very serious about HIV/Aids." Among those to have expressed alarm about South Africa's recent troubles are a number of prominent white authors who once campaigned against the apartheid government.
South African novelist André Brink this week strongly condemned the poorly performing health and safety ministers, describing them both as "monsters", while compatriot Rian Malan has painted a depressing picture of the so-called "Rainbow Nation" in the latest edition of the UK's Spectator magazine.
Mr Malan wrote "there won't be a civil war", but "whites are finished" in the country.
Sir Anthony, who described himself as "the first major investor in the new South Africa back in 1993", remarked: "There is no doubt that the race to succeed President Mbeki has unnerved a number of observers, but the truth is that it is not so much a presidential succession battle as a leadership contest - not unlike that in the US or even Britain where both leaders, like Mbeki, are drawing towards the end of their periods in office."
"The members of the governing alliance are thrashing out their differences in public, via a free and energetic media, which is the democratic thing to do . . . Who said democracy had to be polite?"