TIME EUROPE
September 11, 2000, Vol. 156 No. 11
To Our Readers
Our South Africa bureau chief Peter Hawthorne first met Thabo Mbeki in the Zambian capital of Lusaka back in the 1970s, when Mbeki was a roving ambassador in exile for the African National Congress and Hawthorne was a freelancer covering Africa for a variety of British and American publications, including Time. In those days, Nelson Mandela was still breaking rocks as prisoner No. 0221141011 on Robben Island, and South Africa was firmly in the grip of apartheid. ÒBack then,Ó Hawthorne recalls, Òit was difficult to imagine a day when Mandela would be a free man and South Africa a multiracial democracy. And if anybody had suggested to myself or Mbeki that one day he would succeed Mandela as President of his country, I believe we would both have had a chuckle over a glass or two of the South African beer we journalists used to take to the homesick a.n.c. exiles.Ó
But then came the Mandela miracle, and MbekiÕs rapid rise to the top. Last year, he took over the presidency from Mandela, and last week he and Hawthorne met once again in PretoriaÕs Union Buildings, formerly the seat of power of the architects of apartheid who had banned the a.n.c. and forced Mbeki and others to spend the better part of their adult lives outside their beloved country. ÒFor Mbeki it has been a long and difficult journey from exile to the presidency,Ó says Hawthorne. ÒBut in a way the hardest part has only just begun. Mandela is a hard act to follow, and there are tough times ahead. South Africa is still struggling to cope with the aftermath of apartheid and Mbeki is under intense pressure to deliver a better, more prosperous South Africa to his fellow countrymen. He is also being looked to by fellow Africans for solutions to the many problems that afflict the continent as a whole.Ó
A self-confessed workaholic who thinks nothing of studying through the night to master an issue, Mbeki is clearly relishing the challenge of being President, despite the glare of public office and the close press scrutiny that comes with the territory. He is warier than in the days when he worked in MandelaÕs shadow as the Deputy President or as the a.n.c.Õs spokesman in Lusaka all those years ago. But as Time discovered in an interview with him last week, Mbeki is not afraid to speak out on controversial issues. Not everybody likes what he says and he has drawn a lot of flak for his views on aids and hiv. But when Mbeki speaks youÕve got to listen. We did, and you can find the results in this weekÕs magazine and on our website, www.timeeurope.com.
Chris Redman, Editor, TIME Atlantic
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September 11, 2000
EUROPE
Jospin's Troubled Waters
Protests and a MinisterÕs resignation leave the French PM with some post-holiday headaches
A Chilling Murder
A horrific crime by three neo-Nazis leads to German soul searching
AFRICA
Mbeki: AfricaÕs Challenges
TIME talks with South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki
BUSINESS
All Boxed In
Amazon is losing money and Wall StreetÕs support as chief executive Jeff Bezos defiantly expands the company
Europe's Share Mantra
OM makes a bid for the London Stock Exchange, aiming to give it a high-tech Swedish makeover
ENVIRONMENT
Willy Won't He?
After years of preparation, killer whale Keiko, the star of Free Willy, may at last return to the wildÑif he can only learn to shrug off humans
DEPARTMENTS
To Our Readers
Techwatch
World Watch
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
E-mail us at mail@timeatlantic.com
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