AIDSestimated that life expectancy in South Africa would fall from 68
years in 1998 to 48 in 2010. On account of AIDS,South Africa dropped
thirteen places in the United Nations Development Program's Human De-
velopment Index, from 89 in 1998 to 101 in 1999. 69 As the scourge inex-
orably intensified, it was beginning to affect every aspect of life in South
Africa. For example, a vast number of AIDSorphans were being drawn
into crime as their way to survival. 70 The health of South Africans was
also adversely affected by high levels of air and water pollution. The
leaded exhaust fumes of the heavy urban traffic, combined with factory
emissions and the smoke of coal and kerosene fires, created dangerous lev-
els of air pollution in the cities; open-cast coal mines were heavy air pol-
luters in Mpumalanga, and the vast dumps of treated rock from the gold
mines contaminated water supplies. Environmental questions had always
ranked low on the political agenda in South Africa, and no appreciable
improvement took place during the Mandela presidency.
Under a weak education minister, little progress was made in coping
with the education mess. Although the system was formally desegregated,
there continued to be a vast disparity in quality, and despite many over-