South Africa: President Thabo Mbeki marked the great achievements and challenges of South Africa's post-apartheid decade yesterday in a State of the Nation address just months from the country's third democratic elections.
The South African President celebrated victories by his African National Congress (ANC) party but skirted the two controversial issues - AIDS and the crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe - that have dogged his administration.
"We have always known that our country's blemishes, produced by more than three centuries of colonialism and apartheid, could not be removed in one decade," he told the opening of parliament in Cape Town.
"Nevertheless, we have no hesitation in saying that we have made great advances to ensure the continuous extension of the frontiers of freedom of which Nelson Mandela spoke almost 10 years ago." Africa's great elder statesman, now 85, watched from the gallery of Cape Town's National Assembly building. Former president F.W. de Klerk, who helped engineer the transition from apartheid in 1994, sat nearby.
The ANC government had built 1.6 million new houses, achieved 70 per cent electrification and 85 per cent secondary school enrolment rates, Mr Mbeki said. Inflation had fallen from double-digit figures to four per cent and the economy was growing fast.
But much remained to be done, he conceded. Unemployment remained stubbornly high at 30 per cent; there are high levels of violent crime and a widening gulf between rich and poor.
Despite Mr Mbeki's affirmative action policies, most of South Africa's economic power remains in the hands of the white minority.
Diseases like HIV/AIDS were of "serious concern," he said, making his sole mention of the scourge that has affected over five million South Africans.
Mr Mbeki has faced a steady barrage of criticism for questioning, then playing down, the extent of the pandemic.
However government did not need new policies, he added, but would work to ensure the "vigorous implementation" of existing ones. "We must continue to produce the good news that has made our country a place of hope even for other people in the rest of the world," he said.
He won applause for making frank mention of the rugby and soccer scandals that plagued national sport over the past year.
The chamber building, which was built in the 1980s during white-dominated rule, was packed with guests wearing traditional African robes, Indian saris and western business suits.
The true test of Mr Mbeki's popularity, however, will come at elections due in the coming months, which the ANC is expected to easily win. Next Wednesday he is expected to announce the polling date and his candidacy for a second term.
The new president will be sworn in on 27th April, on the anniversary of the historic elections that ended decades of racist rule. Opposition figures criticised his failure to mention Zimbabwe, where Mr Mbeki has shied away from criticism of President Robert Mugabe, and the fleeting reference to AIDS.
"With millions of people sick and dying of AIDS, he only mentions it once. Disappointing," said Mr Tony Leon, leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance.