Nelson Mandela's 5-year term as president of South Africa was a disaster. Some cold hard facts:

1. Between 1994 & '99, more than 500 000 jobs were lost. By the end of 1998, South Africa's economy was declared to be in "formal recession"

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2. Also in 1998, several large companies moved biliions of rands and their stock listings overseas, London to be specific. Anglo American Corporation, Old Mutual, Liberty Life and South African Breweries amongst others, delisted from the JSE

3. In one weekend during the winter of 1998, the then-governor of the reserve bank threw away R33 billion worth of South Africa's currency reserves in an ill-fated attempt to save the rand after it fell by 30%. It didn't work, so he hiked the interest rate by 7%

4. Between April & September 1998, the JSE collapsed by 40%. Dozens of black businesses, mainly over-leveraged (too much debt) BEEs went belly up.

5. In the 3 years between '96 & '98 all GEAR's (Growth, Employment & Redistribution) targets were missed: the target GDP was 3.8%, meanwhile Mandela's govt only manged to achieve 0,1% growth in 1998. Per capita wealth levels fell by 2.5%

6. Mandela's administration predicted 126000, 256000 & 246000 jobs in the formal sector in '96, '97 & '98. Instead, 71000, 126000, 186000 jobs were lost.

7. The rate of increase in private sector investment fell from 6.1 to 3.1 to a negative 0.7% in '96, '97 & '98 (instead of rising 9.3, 9.1 and 9.3 per as anticipated by Madiba's GEAR policy

8. Any foreign direct investment that happened during Mandela's term was related to the purchase of existing assets through privatisation and merger/acquisition deals,(including the 30% sale of Telkom by government) not new investment in plant, equipment, industry etc.

9. In 1997, $2.7 billion flowed out of the country, as opposed to the $1.7 billion that came in. In the 3 years ('96 - '98). Savings also fell from 18% to 14% instead of govt's prediction of 21%

10. Mandela's administration predicted that the current account deficit (the situation whereby the total value of goods and services a country imports exceeds the total of goods it exports) would remain stable in 1998, however it worsened from minus 1.3% to minus 2.1%

11. Interest rates remained in the double digits from '96 to '98 (instead of falling to 4 per cent, as GEAR had predicted), and the value of the rand collapsed from 3.5 to the US dollar in 1996 to 6.7 (briefly) in 1998. a 52% drop!

12. All of this is without mentioning the terribly poor service delivery in housing, land, water & education.

By any measure, Mandela's presidency was decisively an utter and abject failure. Madiba Magic was simply a promo scam to hide the reality of things, a grand hoax.