"We South Africans need to address them (the country's problems) in a calm and realistic manner, but in doing so we should not forget the enormous successes that we have achieved since we set our country on its new course in 1990." Those words, believe it or not, were spoken a few days ago by the last South African to ascend to the presidency of the republic under the obnoxious system of racial segregation known as apartheid. FW De Klerk was commenting on the election by his country's parliament of Kgalema Motlanthe as president after Thabo Mbeki stepped aside in a whirlwind of controversy.

At an official function on Tuesday, De Klerk continued his effort to promote calm. "We South Africans know the recipe for success: we have the ability to become the first African country to break into the ranks of First World nations." He cautioned his compatriots not to underestimate the forces that "bind us together and spend too much energy worrying about the centrifugal forces that drive us apart... of course one should not be blind to these negative forces and the very real problems that confront us."

Thabo Mbeki was Nelson Mandela's deputy president, and as such he actually ran the country while Mandela exhorted his compatriots to an elevated vision and charmed the world's leaders and masses alike. When the Great Man gave in to the weight of his years and infirmities, Mbeki took over as president and made his own mark.

But in the last few years a power struggle broke out between Mbeki and a prominent Zulu politician, Jacob Zuma, who last year beat him in the contest for president of the party. It's widely known that he has ambitions for the presidency of the country as well. He had been charged with corruption in connection with arms procurement, and grumblers claimed Mbeki was behind those charges for purely political purposes. The matter finally went to court, and was thrown out last month on a technicality. Because the court did not address the actual charges, he could be charged again, and the prosecutors say they are working on that. All the same, because of the kerfuffle, factions within the ANC forced Mbeki to resign a couple of weeks ago.

Then followed a couple of days of turmoil during which it wasn't clear who was deciding what or who would replace him. The ANC has had a tradition of internal discipline and iron-clad unity, which was undermined by the protracted struggle between Mbeki and Zuma and plunged the country into its most serious crisis since the end of apartheid in 1994.

But the parliamentarians in the National Assembly came together and chose Motlanthe to be interim president. He'll run things until an election takes place early next year. Although he's been a member of the Zuma faction, Motlanthe quickly moved to calm fears of sweeping changes. In his first address, he pointed out: "Over the course of the last few days, we have proven the durability of our constitutional order and the vibrancy of our democracy." The first thing he did was get rid of Mbeki's controversial health minister.

He shuffled Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to the administrative post of minister in his office, and replaced her with Barbara Hogan. The outgoing minister had generated considerable controversy over her contrary views on HIV/AIDS. In the country with the heaviest burden of AIDS sufferers - with 800 people dying each day - she had embraced herbal remedies and quack healers, and claimed that the big drug companies were unscrupulously pushing anti-retroviral drugs on Africans just to make profits.

The new minister immediately made it clear that the fight against AIDS and the related killer, tuberculosis, will be her main priorities. Barbara Hogan suffered imprisonment and torture by the apartheid regime, and criticised Mbeki's cabinet for its inaction on the AIDS file. She says her biggest challenge is HIV/AIDS and the strains it places on the health system.

Motlanthe also replaced the justice minister, who was central in the fight between Mbeki and Zuma. The new minister, Enver Surty, is neutral in this political battle, and observers regard his appointment as a neat manoeuvre. Similarly, the new president is receiving kudos for his choice of minister of safety and security, Nathi Mthethwa, who right off addressed the need to confront crime. South Africa has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world, but Mbeki and his minister enjoyed less than modest success in dealing with it.

In his youth the intellectual Motlanthe was a student activist, then became a trade unionist and later, member of the ANC's military wing. He spent ten years in the infamous Robben Island prison for terrorist acts. There are some - especially among the jittery white population - who fear he will set the country on a socialist trend. But he has taken pains to emphasise that he's not about to rock the boat. After he was sworn in, Motlanthe explained: "Mine is not the desire to deviate from what is working. It is not for me to re-invent policy. Nor do I intend to reshape either the Cabinet or the public service."

And it seems to be working. A leading South African newspaper, Business Day, remarked in an editorial: "For now the country has at its head a nice and largely untainted man with not much ego, who doesn't think he knows everything and who listens to people... You can almost feel the relief in the republic."

- keeble.mac@sympatico.ca

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