WHITE South Africans are still reeling from the impact of Nelson Mandela’s valedictory speech as president of the ruling African National Congress. Until then Mandela had preached “national reconciliation” in a rainbow nation. Whites, many of whom feel guilty—with some reason— about the past, have been delighted to grasp the proffered hand of black friendship.
But in a five-hour tirade on December 16, Mandela excoriated the enemies of the “national democratic revolution,” linking the media, opposition parties, non-governmental organizations, and sundry others in a vast counterrevolutionary conspiracy. He and other ANC spokesmen have suggested that South Africa’s crime wave (a murder rate 11 times as high as New York City’s, etc.) is being deliberately encouraged by whites. Some of the businesses and newspapers thus condemned are actually run by blacks, but Mandela dismisses them as puppets.
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