Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - January 22, 2008

And so it was that the leopard inherited the crown, revealing different spots to those on display in exile years.

Before touching on these, it should be said that Thabo Mbeki did some things well. Most notably, he maintained economic stability and for those who sneer and say the 5percent growth rate was not accompanied by significant job creation, it is worth considering possible alternatives: Zimbabwean/Argentinean/Weimer Republican-style hyper-inflation among them.

He also did exceptionally well in maintaining the momentum of Nelson Mandela's success in pacifying KwaZulu-Natal by appeasing the megalomania of Mangosuthu Buthelezi (through Zuma's skills, it must be said).

You have only to consider what might have been (Bosnia, Rwanda, Congo, Angola) to realise the lack of political violence since 1994 has been an immense achievement.

In other areas his record was ambiguous. For example, he placed considerable energy and government resources into programmes involved with alleviating the sting of poverty - housing, sanitation, electricity, water supply.

When I visit poorer African townships such as Khayelitsha I can see the positive effects. But these efforts were mired by corruption and incompetence and, in the end, have just not been enough.

On the issue of corruption itself, Mbeki developed a reputation for probity at the individual level, and it was under his watch that the Scorpions (the anti-corruption police/prosecutors) were set up.

And yet their reach did not extend to those members of his own government who were both corrupt and within the president's favour. In other words, bad eggs who were pro-Mbeki were given a free pass.

On crime generally, his approach was lamentable - suggesting he saw it as primarily a white concern.

The problem might well have been rooted in hundreds of years of white people treating black people worse than cattle, but Mbeki's way of handling it was yet another example of his tin ear for politics.

Instead of blaming the messenger bearing bad news, he should have made fighting crime a national crusade.

His approach to Zimbabwe was also wrong-headed. In the 1970s, the apartheid government was persuaded it would be given kudos if it put the squeeze on Ian Smith.

They did as they were told and Smith went kicking and screaming to the negotiating table. Mbeki could have done likewise - threats, followed by sanctions and whatever else it took. Instead, he watched as Zimbabwe descended into the depths of despair.

Mbeki will forever be associated with his idiocy over Aids. In one sense, it could be said that the initial culprit was Mandela who, despite the best efforts of Aids campaigners, said nothing until seeing the light after leaving office. If he had spoken out and instructed his government to do likewise in 1994, it is possible that hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved.

But Mbeki went several leagues further - by adopting an absurd, flat-earth position that denied the link between sex, HIV and Aids . This position has been proved beyond any doubt to be wrong, yet Mbeki persisted with it, meaning those fighting the disease, also had to fight their government.

But more than this, the central problem with Mbeki was his anti- democratic personality. Contrary to views espoused by some exiled white liberals (Christopher Hope, for example), I believe South Africa is still a thriving democracy.

It is hardly the ANC's fault that its opposition parties are so pathetic, and whenever I go to parliament (once or twice a year) I'm impressed by the strength and depth of debate.

The unions, churches, courts, and most importantly, the press, remain free to criticise the government and although the SABC has reverted to its role as the master's voice, the rest of the media (radio and newspapers in particular) attack the government more vigorously than, say, the US press has with George Bush.

Mbeki surrounded himself with sycophants, and regarded any outside criticism as an attack on the ANC and an expression of subversion or reaction.

This, combined with his Africanism, contributed to scape-goating that sometimes took on a racial tone. Those Africans who criticised, such as Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya, were portrayed as quislings and/or persecuted through abuse of the legal system.

This would have led to the stifling of debate within civil society, and, ultimately, to a weakening of democracy. This culture was most damaging within the ANC.

The only way to succeed was to sing Mbeki's praises and condemn his critics, with the result many of those who rose in the Mbeki years were people who were weak, morally compromised and corrupt.

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