Biggest cheer reserved for Nelson Mandela as South Africans celebrate

SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, has singled out the fight against poverty as his government's major …

SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, has singled out the fight against poverty as his government's major task, writes Seamus Martin

Addressing the nation during his inauguration ceremony at the Union Buildings in Pretoria yesterday, Mr Mbeki, using language which at times verged on the poetic, reminded South Africans of the evil system from which the country emerged 10 years ago, was strongly critical of globalisation and its effects on Africa and held out the promise of an "African renaissance" in which his country would play a major role.

The inauguration ceremony was part of a nationwide celebration of the 10th anniversary of the country's first democratic election, which swept the African National Congress into power and its then leader, Mr Nelson Mandela, to the presidency.

Mr Mandela received by far the warmest and loudest welcome from the tens of thousands who gathered on the great lawns in front of the Union Buildings, once the powerhouse of Afrikaner nationalist government and the centre of apartheid rule.

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As soon as Mr Mandela and his wife, Graca Machel, were seen on the big TV screens placed on the lawns, the crowd burst into cheers mixed with the traditional ululations of African women.

A decade ago Mr Mandela was agile and vibrant on his inauguration day. Yesterday, he looked frail and elderly, walked with the aid of a stick and had to be helped up the steps of the buildings.

The assembled guests, including up to 50 heads of state and government, as well as numerous foreign government ministers, including the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, spontaneously rose to their feet to deliver a standing ovation.

A less vociferous but extremely warm welcome was given to Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, who arrived with his wife, Grace, in an old-fashioned Mercedes with Zimbabwean number plates. Mr Mugabe, surrounded by bodyguards, repeatedly gave a clenched-fist salute to the watching crowds.

There was a reminder of tragedy with the arrival of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, whose country recently marked the 10th anniversary of genocide.

Mr Mbeki's arrival was greeted by traditional African "praise singers". Leaders of the many religions of this rainbow nation said prayers for his future success before Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, dressed in the green robes of South Africa's Roman-Dutch legal system, administered the oath.

A 21-gun salute, a fly-past of military and civilian aircraft and the playing of the anthem Nkosi Sikelel' i Afrika ushered in Mr Mbeki's second and final five-year term as head of state and head of government.

Mr Mbeki reminded the people of the country's past. "South Africa was," he said, "a place in which to be born black was to inherit a lifelong curse. It was a place in which to be born white was to carry a permanent burden of fear and hidden rage."

The struggle to eradicate poverty had been, and would continue to be, a central part of the national effort to build the new South Africa, Mr Mbeki said.

None of pressing social problems, including the nation's health, was capable of resolution outside the context of the creation of jobs and the alleviation and eradication of poverty. This was the only oblique reference in the speech to the country's AIDS pandemic.

South Africa, he said, could not escape involvement in the struggle to confront "the negative outcomes of the process of globalisation, the growing impoverishment of billions across the globe and the failure of the multilateral institutions, including the United Nations, to respond quickly and effectively to the needs and aspirations of those who are poor and do not dispose of immense power".

As Mr Mbeki left the podium the celebration of "Ten Years of Freedom" began with musical and dramatic performances on the South Lawn of the Union Buildings and throughout the country, right down to Cape Town, where the occasion was marked at the "Company's Gardens", a park laid out in the 17th century by South Africa's first white settlers from the Dutch East India Company.