'Time of challenge, opportunity'
Lavinia Mahlangu
8 February 2008Acknowledging South Africans' fears for their future, in the light of the energy crisis, crime and economic concerns, President Thabo Mbeki has called for national unity, saying that while the country faced various challenges, it was also in an era of opportunity.
Delivering his State of the Nation address in Cape Town on Friday, Mbeki said he was "aware of the fact that many in our society are troubled by a deep sense of unease about where our country will be tomorrow."
Mbeki noted concerns about power cuts, the prosecution of the National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi and the suspension of the National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, and "fears about a threat to the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law, and the attendant allegations about the abuse of state power for political purposes."
Many South Africans, he said, were "worried about whether our country is threatened by the anarchy represented by the criminal torching of six passenger trains in [Pretoria] last month."
In the economic sphere, Mbeki acknowledged concerns about rising food and fuel prices and the possible impact on the country's economy of the threat of economic recession in the United States.
It would be irresponsible to ignore or dismiss these fears, Mbeki said.
"The real challenge is to respond to them in a manner that conveys the definite message to everybody in our country and the millions in Africa and elsewhere in the world who watch our country with keen interest, that we remain firm in our resolve to continue building the kind of South Africa that has given hope not only to our people, but also to many others outside our borders."
The country's electricity shortage posed both a challenge and an opportunity for South Africans to join with the government and "act in unity to keep the country on course," Mbeki said.
"This must say to all of us that we are indeed in a period of challenges, but surmountable challenges, and precisely because it is a period of challenges, it is also an era of opportunity."
Mbeki quoted Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll, who told delegates at a mining conference in Cape Town earlier this week that she did not regard South Africa's energy shortage as a disaster.
"And South Africa is not alone," Carroll added. "There are pressures on supply regarding our expansion projects in Chile and Brazil.
"Sure, the problems here are serious," Carroll said "[O]vercoming them will require ingenuity, especially in energy efficiency and energy saving, as well as the development of alternative power supplies.
"But if all of us can forge strong partnerships to tackle the situation, we will all come through - I hope relatively unscathed … This is not a time for finger pointing, but for working together in finding solutions."
Having said this, however, Mbeki apologized for the power cuts on behalf of the government and state company Eskom, and thanked South Africans for their resilience and forbearance in the face of the difficulties.
Source: BuaNews
