On his administration’s greatest accomplishment:
We have confounded the prophets of doom. Very serious political analysts predicted that before we had a new dispensation there would be civil war in this country. We disproved such predictions because the ANC had the courage and the vision to know that without talking to our enemies we would never be able to end apartheid… None of you can challenge the statement that whites have been in this country for more than three centuries, and no government in that period has ever achieved the progress this government has achieved.
On relations between blacks and whites:
All sections of the population, including whites, are playing their role in trying to promote national unity and reconciliation… Since I came out of prison, I’ve gone around businesses, black and white, Afrikaans- and English-speaking, and said to them, “I would like you to build clinics and schools in the countryside because these facilities do not exist.” Not one of them has ever said no. South Africans are uniting to address our problems.
On AIDS in South Africa:
AIDS is a very difficult problem. A lady in KwaZulu Natal who confessed she was HIV-positive was stoned to death. This is not an isolated case. As far back as 1991, I was in Mpumalanga [province] and called a meeting of parents. I said, “The time has come for you to teach your children about safe sex: that a person should have one partner, must use contraceptives and so forth.” I could see they thought I was saying something revolting. After, they came to me and said, “How can you talk about this? You want to encourage prostitution among our children?” A massive education campaign is absolutely necessary to convince the public that they must now abandon old traditions and taboos because this is a disease that attacks the economically active population.
On the advice he’ll give Thabo Mbeki:
I think Mbeki knows so clearly what he has to do–better than this old man. He is widely respected not only up in Africa but throughout the world. Whilst I was locked in a jail he was running around the world, meeting heads of state. And Thabo has been running the government now for a couple of years; I’ve just been a nominal president. Thabo has all the wisdom one needs to lead the country.
On his personal regrets:
We have an unacceptable level of crime and a high level of corruption. We went into government feeling we were going to rid the country of corruption, but our own people did exactly as the previous civil service had done.
On his future plans:
I would like to return to my village and walk around the valleys and the little hills and the streams around which I grew up. But, of course, I now have seven grandchildren and more are coming, and they are in different parts of the country… and I will visit these places and spend more time with them. One of my most painful experiences was when I visited my youngest grandchild, who is 6, and he asked, “Grandpa, are you going out again?” You know, that tore at my heart… I’d like to rest. I welcome the possibility of reveling in obscurity.
