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1976 Sechaba drawing by Dumile Feni, Feni as alter ego for Mbeki; dualism of supplying Mandela's lyrical, reconciliatory speeches while his own were negative, sceptical and anxious; Mbeki's idea to begin Mandela's state of the nation address with a poem by Ingrid Jonker; Mbeki's feelings of disempowerment, the effect of this on his: understanding of government, handling debates about the economy, the arms deal, his relationship with Mandela, racial reconciliation, the AIDS crisis; his role in the Mandela government, running of government first with FW de Klerk then alone, responsible for co-ordinating economic policy across the department, tasked with setting up Mandela's office, chose his own people; Mandela's office quickly got off the ground, Mbeki's office notoriously inefficient; entire presidency lacked coherence, was under capacitated, statistics of first 4 years, the strain of inability to deliver; rumours of Mandela dying and finance minister resigning, the rand dropped February 1996, finance minister replaced by Trevor Manuel; public debate between big business and labour movement, government's insecurity over macro-economic policy; Manuel's GEAR (growth, employment and redistribution macro-economic policy) May 1996, lack of consultation with SACP and Cosatu; GEAR seen as betrayal by the left, ANC went into power with RDP (reconstruction and development programme), GEAR a top-down, non-negotiable macro-economic policy, neo-liberal; before Manuel's arrival (1991) ANC economic policy the domain of left wing London economists; the DEP wrote economic policy in accordance with international financial institutions; 1992 debate on privatisation, Mbeki: nationalise strategic areas, privatise others; RDP more a wish list than workable policy, RDP office very unpopular, Mbeki downscaled it to service delivery mechanism, shut it down in 1996; under the tree meetings with Cosatu, unhappy with GEAR, Mbeki drafted the state and social transformation; the ANC's Mafikeng conference 1997; 1998 Cosatu rejected GEAR; Vavi (Cosatu) and Blade Nzimande (SACP); Mbeki's difficult relationship with Nzimande; the arms deal, to attract industrial development, an ideological commitment to self-determination, SA to play a role in continental peacekeeping; 1998 conflict ridden year in Congo, Lesotho, Nigeria; patronage of Joe Modise, security arms deal bought was against internal threat of disaffected military on both sides; government's plummeting relationship with the private sector, Mbeki increasingly critical of business sector especially with Anglo crowd not committed to transformation; Mbeki: SA business men badmouthing SA government abroad; 1998 Business Trust established; Mbeki's response to Anglo-American's CEO Tony Trahar; Mbeki and especially Manuel: government should not be in perpetual negotiations with its social partners; fracture between those whose job it was to run the state and those whose job it was to represent the people; the hero or the impimpi; for its architects GEAR was a means toward self-reliance, a product of Mbeki's New Africanism, determined to survive independent of white creditors; Mbeki also warned of pitfalls of culture of acquisition; Mbeki later revised GEAR, replaced it in 2003 with understanding that SA consisted of two economies (1 booming, the other underdeveloped).
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