SUBJECT:
South Africa? ten years after
I. INTRODUCTION
It has been ten years since the then president of South Africa, F. W. de Klerk, made his famous February speech in which he unbanned the black resistance movement the African National Congress (ANC), released Nelson Mandela from jail, and negotiated a transition to black majority rule.
After a landslide victory at the polls in the country?s first-ever truly democratic elections eight years ago, the ANC, with Mandela as president, became the ruling party Mandela (or Madiba, as he is affectionately called) served a five-year term until 1999 and was succeeded by current president Thabo Mbeki, after another huge election victory for the ANC.
Despite the major problems of high unemployment and crime rates and a fluctuating local currency (the rand), South Africa is politically and economically stable? extremely so, if viewed in the African context. This, despite the eleven official languages and culture groups (including Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana, Sotho, Ndebele, and Afrikaners), the nine provinces and separate capitals for the judiciary, the legislatI've, and the executI've government.
2. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES
After the 1994 elections, the ANC government faced the mammoth task of integrating three major military and intelligence forces:
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The following military structures were forged into the new South African National Defence Force during a prolonged, often difficult, but ultimately reasonably successful process: the white regime?s South African Defence Force (SADF); the ANC?s own military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (translated from Xhosa, it means ?the spear of the nation?); and the military wing of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC? the other, more extreme black faction that opposed the apartheid regime), the Azanian People?s Liberation Army (APLA).
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The far less public and much speedier integration was between the former white government?s National Intelligence Service (NIS) and both the separate ANC and PAC intelligence arms into the new National Intelligence Agency (NIA)? often simply referred to as ?the Agency? and responsible for homeland security.
The old Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), a.k.a. State Security Service, was transformed into the SA Secret Service and takes responsibility for foreign intelligence.
In addition, the former South African Police was transformed into the SA Police Service, integrating the old Security Police.
Internal bickering and old loyalties forced the ANC government to create a new service, the Presidential Intelligence Unit (PIU), in the late nineties. The main aim of the PIU is to keep an eye on other intelligence structures, in addition to both internal and external intelligence gathering.
Through the kitchen window they could see the child standing in the vegetable garden. ?I never told him that men go away. Now he will learn for himself.?
?I am coming back,? Mpayipheli said.
She just shook her head.
?Miriam, I swear ??
?don'?t,? she said.
?I ? it?s ? I owe Johnny Kleintjes, Miriam? .?
Her voice was soft. It always was when she was angry. ?Remember what you said??
?I remember.?
?What did you say, Thobela??
?I said I am not a deserter.?
?And now??
?It?s only for one or two days. Then I?ll be back.?
She shook her head again, filled with foreboding.
?I have to do this.?
?You have to do this? You don'?t have to. Just say no. Let them sort out their own trouble. You owe them nothing.?
?I owe Johnny Kleintjes.?
?You told me you can?t live that life anymore. You said you had finished with it.?
He sighed deeply. He turned around in the kitchen, turned back to her, his hands and voice pleading. ?It?s true. I did say that. And I meant it. Nothing has changed. You?re right? I can say no. It?s a choice, my choice. I have to choose the right way. I must do the right thing, Miriam, the thing that makes me an honorable man. Those are the difficult choices. They are always the most difficult choices.?
He saw she was listening and he hoped for understanding. ?My debt to Johnny Kleintjes is a man?s debt; a debt of honor. Honor is not only caring for you and Pakamile, coming home every afternoon, doing a job that is within the law and nonviolent. Honor also means that I must pay my debts.?
She said nothing.
?Can you understand??
?I don'?t want to lose you.? Almost too soft to hear. ?And I don'?t think he can afford to lose you.? Her gaze
