Mr Mbeki has faced calls from business leaders to act over the black-outs, which at one stage stopped production at some of the country's biggest gold and platinum mines.
After the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act, I worked to integrate USDA county offices and took the first group of black 4-H youth to compete in a state completion.
Instead of Nelson Mandela, Mr Hague's warm-up act was Jim Davidson, who has dropped his old jokes about his black mate "Chalky White" in favour of jibes about his previous wives.