Former president Thabo Mbeki
JOHANNESBURG - Former president Thabo Mbeki says people's living standards were massively improved in the years of democracy up to 2007.
However, that trajectory was reversed between 2011 and 2015.
Mbeki was president until 2008, and Jacob Zuma took over in 2009.
Thabo Mbeki on 30 years of democracy
Meanwhile, Mbeki has laid the blame of power cuts squarely at the Eskom door.
He says the 2008 national blackouts were not the fault of government but were deliberately engineered from inside Eskom.
Mbeki delivered a keynote address at a Freedom Day dialogue in Pretoria.
Thabo Mbeki on power cuts