HEADLINE:   Do this first Mr President

PUBLICATION: Star

PAGE NUMBER: 7

AUTHOR:     Zubeida Jaffer

DATE:       2001-02-08 08:45:24

Do this first, Mr President É

#Leading South Africans have a wish list of what they hope President Thabo Mbeki will say when he delivers his state-of-the-nation address to Parliament tomorrow morning. Special Writer Zubeida Jaffer spoke to some of them.

'People are looking for common ground. The president has to provide ways (for people) to engage together."

This is what Dr Namane Magau wants President Thabo Mbeki to do when he opens Parliament tomorrow.

Magau, who is executive vice-president of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, is one of a number of leading South Africans who have drawn up a wish list of what they feel the president needs to say.

Professor Jakes Gerwel, head of the board of trustees of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, has a list of one: "He must address the question of unity. Mbeki has the prime responsibility of keeping the nation together." 

Dr Van Zyl Slabbert, a political analyst and businessman, wants the government to come forward with an imaginative programme to create jobs. He adds a wish which appears on no other list: "I wish that the South African government would offer to repair the printing press blown up in Zimbabwe."

One of the greatest concerns is creating jobs to draw the unemployed into the economy. Dr Vincent Maphai would like to see Mbeki unveil an economic plan for the century. 

Maphai, one of the leading political scientists in the country, is currently chairperson of the SABC board. "Mbeki must say how the country is expected to perform and where job creation is going."

To help job creation, Magau would like to see incentives for public-private partnerships. At the opening of Parliament a year ago, Mbeki emphasised the need for such partnerships and identified four working groups which he had set up - big business, trade unions, black business and the agricultural sector. 

Drawing on her experience in the United States, Magau says she wants to see Mbeki encourage key social partners in towns to come together across these key sectors to decide    how to grow the economy and jobs. 

"The broad frameworks are in place but we need to mobilise key people who command resources at every level," she says. "We don't know how to collaborate for our own interests. It ultimately needs locals to use their resources and harness whatever there is to create jobs."

Professor Njabulo Ndebele, vice-chancellor of the University of  Cape Town, concurs. But at the top of his wish list is that Mbeki will keep the issue of Aids foremost in the public consciousness. 

Those interviewed hope he confines himself to practical issues around Aids, avoiding the kind of polemics that bedevilled the public discourse last        year.

Another sticky issue is the arms deal. There is the wish for Mbeki to restate that he is not against the inquiry into corruption. But Ndebele also wants him to stay out of the Heath debate.

"The whole thing needs to be disentangled from the person of Judge Heath," Ndebele says. "This would go a long way towards enhancing the investigation, which must     take its course."

Elinor Sisulu, an author and educationist, wants clarity on the arms deal, and would like to see a recommitment to clean government.

"I find we are not getting   the kind of assurances we deserve," she says. "Apart from the controversy, the arms deal is about the question of priorities. If there is to be a real renaissance, attention has to be given to investment in social reconstruction. It will make a big difference if the president clarifies the situation."

The controversy around Judge Heath's participation in the investigation into possible corruption in the arms deal has placed greater media diversity on the wish list. More needs to be done to ensure that a wider diversity of voices are heard, Ndebele believes.

"Compare South Africa to Nigeria and you will find that the media environment here is very restrictive," he says. "The dominant voices are still white controlled. There have to be more opportunities for more voices to be heard, especially in some of the African languages.

Mandla Langa, a writer of fiction and chairperson of the Independent Communications Authority of SA, believes young people need a map to navigate the racial fault-lines in society.

 "The president needs to be bold and upfront to ask people to move away from notions of racial superiority," he says. "There needs to be a deeper discussion and less rhetoric around the issue of race because of a possible polarisation in the country. We will die by it or live by it."

Concern over building a nonracial society brings the wish for a "much finer statement on xenophobia". 

"It is important for South Africans to realise that African communities that are settling here bring very important riches in culture and in other ways," Ndebele says. "We need to have a more positive disposition especially towards those who are black. White immigrants do not face the same problems."

And Magau contends that "We need to treasure our diversity, find the common ground and then even racial issues will be minimised".