Stung by press comment that South Africa's new government had achieved little in its first hundred days, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, addressing the Cape Town Press Club, suggested that the problem lay with the press. It had, he said, been 'perfectly correct for the press to criticise the previous government' - the word 'correct' is worth lingering over - but such behaviour was now inappropriate. Instead of looking for crises, he said, the press 'should ask what its role is in building a democracy'. Mr Mbeki, it turned out, had been particularly incensed by an article in the Financial Mail accusing him of laziness and unexplained absences from important meetings.

LRB 20 October 1994 | PDF Download