of the century – began its sessions under the
chairmanship of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in
April 1996. Its mission was to exorcise the
hatreds of the apartheid era by granting amnes-
ties for politically motivated crimes, including
murder. The televised sessions showed victims
and torturers confronting each other as the
painful truth was extracted. Policemen admitted
to the killing of Steve Biko in 1977; the covert
activities of secret military organisations who used
assassination and torture to suppress opposition,
were uncovered. Black crimes have also been
brought to light. The Commission has discharged
these tasks with fairness and magnanimity.
In June 1999 Mandela retired and Thabo
Mbeki was chosen by the African National
Congress Party to succeed him. Although the
ANC enjoys two-thirds majority in South Africa’s
National Assembly, Mbeki has not abused the
democratic settlement. Mbeki, while wishing to
create a more equitable society between white and
black Africans has continued the Mandela tradi-
tion of reconciliation between the races. South
Africa’s prosperity is dependent on the West and
Mbeki has followed a cautious policy in global
politics. On the African continent Mbeki is more
active, however, sending peacekeeping soldiers to
assist the UN. The most problematic aspect is his
opposition to outside intervention in Zimbabwe.
So far his diplomacy has not softened Mugabe’s
corrupt misrule. Most controversial has been
Mbeki’s refusal for a long time to acknowledge
the true nature of the AIDS disease which is rav-
aging sub-Saharan Africa. More than 4 million
South Africans are infected, one in five of the most
sexually active in the 15- to 25-year-old genera-
tion. The demographic effects are catastrophic
creating orphans and an imbalance between
young workers and the old unless the spread can
be drastically reduced. Mbeki for long denied the
cause of AIDS calling it just one of the diseases of
poverty and claiming that drugs could do more
harm than good. He saw it as a white man’s way
of denigrating Africans. Mandela was outraged
and waged a public campaign against Mbeki’s
refusal until 2003 to accept the facts. Since 2000
more has been done to educate the young and
provide drugs, though not to everyone who needs
them. A national plan has begun to emerge but
progress is painfully slow.As the 1990s began the south-western region of
the African continent had been the scene of con-
tinuous bloodshed and of international involve-
ment since the 1960s. In Angola the Cold War
and the post-independence conflicts between
rival black movements, which had fought the
Portuguese before independence in November
1975, inflicted devastation on the country. South
Africa became heavily involved in the civil war for
ideological and racial reasons and in order to
retain its grip on Namibia. It was a devilish brew.
Parts of the interlocking conflicts were finally
resolved when Namibia gained its independence
in 1990 and South Africa withdrew. International
intervention, spearheaded by the United Nations,
had led to a measure of success in the pacification
of this region of Africa.772 AFRICA AFTER 1945: CONFLICT AND THE THREAT OF FAMINE
Nelson Mandela, released from prison after 27 years
on 15 January 1990, leads white and black Africans
to a better future. © Peter Turnley/Corbis