South Africa strives to build better future
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - "I don't know what to say! I don't know what to do," the adult daughter wails as she waits expectantly for her father's directions.
"That's the trouble with freedom," her father replies as he quietly turns away.
The exchange is fictional. It comes at the climax of the play "Nothing but the Truth." But the companion themes of uncertainty and opportunity play out across South Africa every day.
It has been only eight years since black South Africans gained majority rule and Nelson Mandela was elected president. In that time, South Africans have learned to use the infrastructure of a parliamentary democracy, committed themselves to the rule of law, reconnected to the world economy and emerged as the continent's new leader. The individual and economic wounds left by years of often-brutal white-minority rule also are healing.
But . . . .
The country that possesses the world's largest store of gold and diamonds also is home to unbelievable poverty. White South Africans have an average annual income of $7,000. The figure for black South Africans is $1,000. Unemployment runs as high as 40 percent in some areas of the country.
Job creation is a high priority, but most of those jobs will come in technologically sophisticated businesses that require an educated work force. An estimated 8 percent of the country's gross domestic product will be spent on education, yet black students still struggle to overcome the disparity of resources that existed under minority rule.
Black and white alike suffer from the high violent crime rate. Driving the streets of Johannesburg, a group of senior editors on a fact-finding tour from the United States sees block after block of walls topped by barbed wire. Security guards and police officers are ever-present. Accounts of murders, assaults and carjackings fill the pages of local newspapers daily.
Housing continues to be in short supply even though 1.3 million housing units have been built since 1994. Clean water and electricity have yet to reach some areas.
Now add the burden of AIDS. The national rate of HIV/AIDS is close to one-quarter of the population. Add to that the toll taken by opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis, and it's easy to see why in the last decade the country's life expectancy has dropped from 59 years to 49 years.
The aftershock will come when the deaths accelerate and society has to cope with a generation of AIDS orphans who know no family structure. (That's the story taken up by Bono and his colleagues as part of the national tour that stopped in Lincoln this week.)
So private and public institutions struggle to find and focus the resources required to cope with this massive human need. And the human toll continues to mount in all sectors of society.
There is no end in sight. As one young AIDS worker said: "This is not a world of miracles."
So what of the future?
The political leadership knows that its constituency will not be patient forever. The monumental task of governing must proceed. Choices that allocate resources among the myriad public needs must be made. The post-Mandela leadership may not be as charismatic as South Africa's beloved Old Man, but it seems to be effective.
White business has been cautious in its approach, but the black economic empowerment movement is growing, as is the black middle class.
Together, government and business are marshaling resources to combat the AIDS epidemic. At the same time, South Africa is moving into an internationally acknowledged role as a continental leader, peacemaker and spokesman.
Yet perhaps the greatest challenge is restoring the sense of wholeness that informs the South African soul. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission showed the way when it laid bare the ugliness of apartheid and allowed whites to seek forgiveness - and blacks to grant it.
But only time will tell whether forgiveness is enough.