President Mandela was correct to focus on reconciliation as the cornerstone of his short presidency.

He was incorrect, and missed a great opportunity, however, in ignoring or downplaying the need for redress or transformation. Given his moral standing, a strong push for redress coming from him would have been much easier to sell to white business and foreign investors. Quite frankly, the whole world expected it and therefore resistance would have been muted.

Unfortunately, President Mbeki, while doing something about it, focused too much on economic orthodoxy for his efforts to bear much fruit.

President Zuma, quite frankly, lacked the stature of both Presidents Mandela and Mbeki, and given that his ‘renewed’ push for “radical economic transformation” came hard on the heels of much publicised alleged wrong-doing, many questioned his motives or timing. His push also came late in his presidency, when for all intents and purposes he was a lame duck president.

The redress project, however, can never be postponed forever. Sooner or later it has to happen. Otherwise, liberation and the NDR would surely have been betrayed.