Challenges await South Africa's new leader
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - When Jacob Zuma takes the presidential oath today, he will become the leader of a country where at least a quarter of the workforce is unemployed and 1,000 people die of AIDS every day.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - When Jacob Zuma takes the presidential oath today, he will become the leader of a country where at least a quarter of the workforce is unemployed and 1,000 people die of AIDS every day.
No wonder South Africans grasped at Zuma's promises of new hope. It is a measure of his political skill that he was able to convince them his 97-year-old African National Congress, in power since the first all-race elections in 1994, was the party of change.
For all the challenges ahead, Zuma says South Africans need only look back for inspiration.
"We made history in the world in 1994 when together we discarded our tragic past, and opted for a future of harmony, peace and stability," he said after parliament elected him president this week.
The extent to which Zuma can deliver will be limited both by global forces and by the realities peculiar to South Africa's history. This is particularly true when it comes to improving the lives of the impoverished black majority, a promise the ANC has been making for 15 years, and which will be harder to fulfill amid a worldwide recession.
"You need your strongest leaders now, anywhere in the world," said Neren Rau, chief executive of the South African Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Zuma promises to speed up delivery of houses, clinics, schools, running water, and electricity. But he also has acknowledged the difficulties.
South Africa's economy slipped 1.8 percent during the last quarter of 2008, and a further decrease in the gross domestic product was expected when the first-quarter 2009 figures come in.
Zuma is a populist former union activist whose rise to power was supported by the Communist Party, a traditional ANC ally. His cabinet post announcements tomorrow will be closely watched, with some counting how many communists he includes.
On health, Salim Abdool Karim, head of the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa, says he already has seen welcome changes.
"At one level, there's not much you could do worse than under the previous health minister," he said of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who served under President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang played down the extent of the AIDS crisis and questioned the link between HIV and AIDS.
Barbara Hogan replaced Tshabalala-Msimang after Mbeki lost a power struggle with Zuma late last year. Under Hogan, Karim said the government had shown a new respect for science.
Zuma has said he would continue Mbeki's work for peace and economic development across the continent.
