In his state of the nation speech, delivered to mark the opening of parliament, President Thabo Mbeki yesterday failed to repudiate a statement by one of his provincial premiers justifying lying as unexceptional and acceptable.
The Premier of Mpumalanga, Mr Ndaweni Mahlangu, who was specially chosen by Mr Mbeki in preference to the incumbent, Mr Mathews Phosa, was sharply criticised by opposition politicians and religious leaders after he said of politicians who lied: "It is accepted and is not unusual anywhere in the world . . . I personally don't find it to be a very bad thing."
Mr Tony Leon of the Democratic Party was not content to condemn Mr Mahlangu's defence of dishonesty. He demanded that President Mbeki dissociate himself from his premier's remarks during his state of the nation address.
But Mr Mbeki refrained from even mentioning the affair, apparently believing that the controversy had been settled by a qualified apology from Mr Mahlangu and a statement from the ruling African National Congress reaffirming its commitment to "honest and truthful" leadership at all times.
Mr Leon, reacting to Mr Mbeki's decision not to address the issue, told The Irish Times yesterday: "It is disappointing. It was his first critical test, which he failed."
The nearest Mr Mbeki came to dealing with Mr Mahlangu's remarks during his wide-ranging speech was when he reiterated his government's commitment to "honest, transparent and accountable government" and its determination to "act against anybody who transgresses these norms."
Mr Mbeki used the occasion to emphasis his government's dedication to the two fundamental pillars of its economic policy: its Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and its Growth, Development and Redistribution (GEAR) initiative. These programmes are designed to uplift the country's historically disadvantaged black people and to promote sustained economic growth.
He pledged that his government would address "any remaining impediments to investment and job creation", hinting that structural changes to labour laws to make them more flexible might be in the offing.
Confronting the negativism which South Africans indulge in occasionally, perhaps particularly those in the white community, Mr Mbeki urged his compatriots to "fight back to defeat a frame of mind which drives some among us to hope and pray for failure and to celebrate such failure whenever it has occurred".
A major theme of the speech was his commitment to combat crime - rated with unemployment by most South Africans as one of the two most serious problems confronting the country - by improving the police service. Towards the end of his speech Mr Mbeki focused once again on a central theme of his agenda for the coming millennium: generating an African Renaissance to enable Africa to resume her rightful place in the world order.
To advance that objective he announced that he would deploy his esteemed predecessor, Mr Nelson Mandela.