THENEWSOUTHAFRICA
servants, as the May 2000 industrial strike approached the populist sector
of the ANC persuaded the leadership to reverse course and claim to support
the strikers.P''
As a result of these pressures, the government proceeded very cau-
tiously with its commitment to privatize South Africa's four para statal
giants: the defense group Denel, the telecommunications
monopoly Tel-
kom, the public utility Eskom, and the transport group Transnet."? More-
over, although the government made its labor legislation more flexible
than before, it still left more powers in the hands of the South African
trade unions than was usual in most industrialized countries. Summing up
his analysis of Mbeki's first year in office, journalist Howard Barrell ob-
served that "the concrete evidence available thus far indicated that the
government and the ruling party do not have the political will to acceler-
ate privatisation,
to force through painful changes in the public service
and labour market regulations that they and their consultants have plainly
identified as necessary, and to foster on a vast scale entrepreneurial activ-
ity among the im.poverished black majority."98
Indeed, the economy remained in poor shape throughout the first year