A battered faith in the new South Africa - VWO-Examens

Eindexamen Engels vwo 2007-Ihavovwo.nlTekst 7JAMES LAMONTA battered faith in the new South AfricaBEYOND THE MIRACLEBy Allister SparksProfile Books, £12.99,published August 28, 2003Even now, nearly 10 years afterthe end of apartheid, AllisterSparks still feels twinges ofdisbelief when he sits in thepress gallery of South Africa’sparliament in Cape Town.Earlier in his career as a journaliston the Rand Daily Mail, he listened inthe same gallery to Hendrik Verwoerd,the architect of apartheid, defending24 . “It sounded so plausible in thatisolated, all-white chamber, cut off likean ocean liner from the pulsatingpolyglot reality of the society outside,”Mr Sparks recalls.Today, Mr Sparks peers down on adiverse throng of parliamentarians,rubbing shoulders good-humouredly.Racial division has given way to anopen, tolerant society. A closedeconomy, rooted in mining andagriculture, has opened its borders andis hungry for foreign investment.Can the change from white minorityrule to multiracial democracy have25 , the veteran journalist askshimself. And is it as good as it looks?Mr Sparks’s latest book, Beyond theMiracle, is among the first of what willbe many appraisals of South Africa inthe coming months, marking 10 yearssince the end of apartheid. In Aprilnext year, a decade will have passedsince Nelson Mandela took power inthe country’s first fully democraticelections. It is a passage of time thatmany consider sufficient to gauge towhat extent he and his African NationalCongress government have 26 theinequalities of apartheid.Journalistic scorecards will comeout. But South Africans themselves willbe able to pass judgment on the ANC’sperformance at the ballot box.Parliamentary elections are expected inthe first half of the year.Mr Sparks’s own comprehensive andreadable assessment of the new SouthAfrica is generous. He reminds us thatSouth Africa’s miracle transitionachieved the 27 that other parts ofthe world still find so elusive. Itspeople stood at the brink of civil warand stepped back.His book, the third in a trilogy,begins with Mr Mandela’s swearing-inas president and ends with theprevailing debates about how to tacklethe HIV/Aids pandemic, narrow thewealth gap and deal with Zimbabwe’sPresident Robert Mugabe.On the way, he takes in many of the28 the post-apartheid era. Heexplains how the governmenttransformed its economic policy,ditching nationalisation for a liberaleconomy with privatisation at its core.He recounts episodes of the Truth andReconciliation Commission, wherevictims’ families confronted theirtorturers. And he draws sympatheticportraits of two very different leaders:Mr Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, hissuccessor.▬ www.havovwo.nl - 1 -www.examen-cd.nl ▬

Eindexamen Engels vwo 2007-Ihavovwo.nlMr Sparks writes as 29 . Headmits to Mr Mbeki drinking himunder the table in Lusaka; he arrangesmeetings to break the logjam betweenAfrikaners and the liberationmovement; and he shares car rideswith community leaders before they areassassinated by hit squads.The book captures both the 30 ofliberators who found – once ingovernment – how impoverished SouthAfrica had become in the last days ofapartheid, and the pragmatic spiritwith which they have set about takingthe country forward.“There was a feeling that if you dealtwith apartheid a lot of other thingswould automatically fall into place, butthat has not been the case. It is muchharder than we expected,” Gill Marcus,deputy governor of the Reserve Bank,tells the author.Some of the book’s most strikingchapters illuminate that 31 . MrSparks’s own efforts to reinvigorate thenews operation of the South AfricanBroadcasting Corporation – formerlyan apartheid propaganda organ – showsome of the shortcomings oftransformation. The SABC’s newmanagement is dogged by indecisionand in-fighting. The same tensions areto be found in many South Africanbusinesses.Mr Sparks’s visits over the years to aonce all-white suburb adjoining asquatter camp on the outskirts ofJohannesburg 32 . White peoplebuild a wall to keep the blacks out. Thewall fails to do so. Black people movein. White people leave theneighbourhood. But some stay behind.People, irrespective of colour, lose theirjobs. Overall, the cameos convey abattered optimism.Beyond the Miracle sums up thechallenge that the ANC faces as itapproaches its third election with ananalogy of a double decker bus. The topdeck – the middle class – isincreasingly multiracial and gettingalong just fine. Downstairs is filled tobursting with black people for whomlittle has changed. But there is nostairway that joins the two.The reviewer is the FT’s former SouthAfrica correspondentFinancial Times▬ www.havovwo.nl - 2 -www.examen-cd.nl ▬

Eindexamen Engels vwo 2007-Ihavovwo.nlTekst 7 A battered faith in the new South AfricaKies bij iedere open plek in de tekst het juiste antwoord uit de gegevenmogelijkheden.1p 24ABCAfrican integrationsocial equalitywhite supremacy1p 25ABCDbeen a passing fancybeen misunderstooddone any goodhappened so fast1p 26ABCbroken downtoleratedunderestimated1p 27ABCDideal societypopularityprosperityreconciliation1p 28ABCDconflicts characterisingmilestones reached inpromises made intraditions born in1p 29ABCDa diplomatan author of fictionan insidera typical white South African1p 31ABCdeterminationdifficultysense of pessimism1p 30ABCdisappointmentexcitementruthlessnes1p 32ABCare equally tellingpresent a different pictureprovide little information▬ www.havovwo.nl - 3 -www.examen-cd.nl ▬