THENEWSOUTHAFRICA
and 3 of the IFP, including Buthelezi. The 25 ANG members came from all
sections of the party-labor
and business, left and right; 6 ministers, per-
haps more, were also members of the South African Communist party. 85
, On June 25, 1999, in his first state of the nation speech to both houses
of parliament, President Thabo Mbeki struck a balance between continu-
ity and change. "We are on course towards healing our wounds and defin-
ing our social and national emancipation,"
he said. "During the last five
years, we have made significant gains towards our goals, ...
[which] have
included a comprehensive
policy framework
to set South Africa on the
road to transformation,"
but South African society was still "in many in-
stances ...
brutal and brutish in the extreme." His government was com-
mitted to creating "a caring society, sustained by a growing economy ca-
pable of extending sustainable and equitable benefits to all our people."
This enormous task called for "the mobilization of the whole nation into
...
a partnership with government for progressive change and a better life
for all, for a cornman effort to build a winning nation." Most of his speech
was a detailed, down-to-earth
statement of his government's
determina-