Leader of S. African Opposition Retires

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - The leader of South Africa's main opposition party stepped down Saturday after 13 years of relentless criticism of the ruling African National Congress, calling for his successor to take on crime, HIV/AIDS and other problems besetting the country.

Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, 50, was known for modernizing the party and decrying government corruption and inefficiency, domestic policy weaknesses and foreign policy failures.

Leon, who like many party members is white, also constantly criticized the government's affirmative action policy, which gave preference to blacks disadvantaged by apartheid.

Saying it was time to make way for new blood before general elections in 2009, Leon called on the Democratic Alliance to "stand up against the new racial nationalists ... revive the winning spirit of the rainbow nation, which the politics of racial transformation has eclipsed."

However, Leon himself was criticized for alienating potential black and mixed-race voters, as well as more progressive whites who perceived him to be arrogant and intolerant.

"There is a broad layer of liberal intelligentsia who have been really turned off by Tony Leon," political analyst Adam Habib said.

Leon also had a frosty relationship with President Thabo Mbeki and was openly scornful of many Cabinet members. At a farewell meeting Thursday, journalists had to ask the two men to sit closer together for photographs, even though Leon later described the talks as cordial.

Leon told more than 1,100 delegates at a congress near Johannesburg that the challenges facing South Africa were greater than when he launched his political career 21 years ago.

"Crime haunts the streets of our nation in a way we could never have imagined it would. HIV/AIDS was a disease that few South Africans had; today it kills hundreds of thousands every year," he said.

"Our economy is growing, but more than 8 million South Africans are out of work. Education is actually in worse shape today than it was under apartheid and investment levels are still much lower than we need them to be."