Continued from page 9 lieves. is that some companies set employees up for failure by hiring people not qualified for a particular post. "And if those people aren't making it three months down the line, then it destroys (opportunities) for every black person."

If the private sector which began implementing affirmative action programmes lon^ before the first all-race elections in April — Is finding the changes tough, the 8i»ua-lion is exacerbated among the country's 1.2 million Afrikaner-dominated public servants.

Here. Mandela has to grapple with a series of contradictory arrangements negotiated

in multi-party talks before he took office. While he has guaranteed job security for the bureaucrats of the apartheid era. he has committed himself to addressing gender and racial discrimination without increasing public spending.

"Keep those who are there — add other people who are black and women — don't increase the wage bill. How do you do that?" asked deputy President Thabo Mbeki in an address to the Cape Town Press Club.

The new government's answer seems to Involve letting nature take Its course. While the old guard maintains its position. the natural attrition of

retirement and resignation is intended to make space for new appointees drawn from the ranks of the previously dis-advantaged.

Mandela's supporters, however. may not want to wait that long. The civil service already has received a staggering two million applications for 11.000 existing vacancies and voters are impatient for Mandela to fill his pre-elec|ion promises.

Such pressure ultimately trfay force Mandela to introduce legislation making affirmative action compulsory rather than voluntary within the next few years.

ARLENE GETZ has Just completed a stint as southern Africa correspondent for Australia's 'Sydney Morning Herald. ’