BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Today's "CNN 20," a look back at a significant handover in South Africa's history.</s>ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for 20 years, this is CNN.</s>CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, JOHANNESBURG BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): After five years at the helm of South Africa's historic transition to democracy, 81-year-old Nelson Mandela passed the baton to 57-year-old Thabo Mbeki, the man he groomed to take his place.</s>HUNTER-GAULT: I think that the atmosphere was a lot like it was in 1994. People were still excited about having the freedom to vote, having the freedom to chose, being citizens.</s>THABO MBEKI, PRESIDENT, SOUTH AFRICA: So help me God.</s>HUNTER-GAULT: The normally low-key Mbeki, who was recovering from a bout with flu, was more soft-spoken than usual, but his message about where he plans to focus his attention came through loud and clear.</s>MBEKI: The full meaning of liberation will not be realized until our people are freed, both from oppression and from the dehumanizing legacy of deprivation we inherited from our past.</s>HUNTER-GAULT: He's a man who has the intellectual capacity and the vision to hold his own among most statesmen in the world.
CNN 20: Thabo Mbeki Inauguration, June 16, 1999