Who wants to be African in South Africa?

I have been trying to remind myself that the South Africa I first reported from, back in 1989 and 1991, is not the one currently in the news for all the wrong reasons. 

It is a different country from the one I lived in as a foreign correspondent from late 1992 to 1994. The country is also much changed from the one in which I did my last stint as a correspondent back in 1999. 

I have since then done short trips to the Rainbow Country but I cannot claim to have the intimate knowledge that I used to have of the events and personalities that make the news there. 

I recall with particular pleasure the trip I made to watch the finals of the World Cup in 2010 as a VIP guest of a special friend of mine who is currently at the top of the political ladder in the country. 

I had the privilege of watching the Republic in all its current glory and seeing old friends who have metamorphosed from lean and hungry liberation fighters to slightly overweight middle-aged