20 Years After Apartheid, South Africa Asks 'How Are We Doing?'
When South Africa buried apartheid with its first all-race election in 1994, the Rev. Desmond Tutu danced with joy as he cast his ballot. He called it "a religious experience, a transfiguration experience, a mountaintop experience."
As the country prepares to vote Wednesday, here's what he told the Sunday Times newspaper: "I didn't think there would be a disillusionment so soon. I'm glad that (Nelson Mandela) is dead. I'm glad that most of these people are no longer alive to see this," a reference to a host of chronic problems such as corruption and poverty.
Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who's often described as the country's moral beacon, also said he won't vote for Mandela's party, the African National Congress, which has ruled for 20 years and is again heavily favored again.
His comments are part of South Africa's favorite debate, waged nonstop since the end of apartheid, on whether the country is getting better or worse since the remarkable transition it navigated two decades ago.
So what's a fair accounting of South Africa today?
The optimists say it remains the most advanced country in Africa with thriving cities that are integrated into the global economy. Millions of blacks have been educated and risen out of poverty. The country's broad successes offer hope for others on a troubled continent. Tutu himself acknowledges all this.
But many also agree with him when he says the country's leaders have fallen far short of the moral example and high standards set by Mandela, who died in December at age 95.
Government corruption is an endemic problem. Violent crime has not been tamed. The HIV/AIDS rates are among the highest in the world. Squatter communities just keep expanding and millions of poor blacks have seen little or no improvement in their lives.
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