The new ANC-led government inherited a country in economic decline, fractured into numerous administrative bureaucracies fraught with corruption and racial divisions. Newly-appointed ministers were untested and inexperienced in governance. Although the ANC is a party with a long tradition of consensual collective decision-making, President Mandela frequently took matters into his own hands as the quickest means to an end, demonstrating an authoritarian, disciplinary streak which stands in stark contrast to his public persona. The steel which lies beneath the fatherly image of the genial and benign leader is seldom unsheathed, but there are many politicians and ANC members who have felt its sharp edge. Former president and and fellow Nobel peace prize winner FW de Klerk experienced the steel in public when Mandela tongue-lashed him during a televised debate during the tense negotiations leading up to the 1994 elections.
Loyalty is also paramount in the lexicon of the president.
General Bantu Holomisa, a former ANC cabinet minister whom Mandela once treated as a son, felt the full force of Madiba's wrath when he implied the ANC had received generous donations from dubious sources. He was expelled after refusing to recant. But the president also used his celebrity status to urge foreign investors to put their money where their promises were. Stubborn and uncompromising In his dealings in the international arena, President Mandela initially demonstrated his naivete in his belief that by taking a firm moral stance on issues, one would win over instant support. In the case of the execution of opposition leader Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Nigerian military government, Mr Mandela went out on a limb at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in 1995, and pressured the Commonwealth to suspend Nigeria from the club.