JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - President Nelson Mandela's stinging criticism of South Africa's white minority drew accusations of racism and paranoia on Wednesday from the politicians he had lambasted. Mandela, 79, bidding farewell as leader of the African National Congress party on Tuesday, said the country's young democracy had yet to unite all races, because whites still clung to privileges gained under apartheid. The white-led National Party (NP), which introduced apartheid in 1948 and dismantled it over 40 years later, said the speech had an "underlying racist tone" that did Mandela and the country a grave disservice. Mandela, who on Wednesday was replaced as ANC leader by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki, said in the speech that some whites thought national reconciliation meant compensating them for the loss of political power by guaranteeing their wealth. Tony Leon, leader of the liberal Democratic Party, called the speech "undoubtedly the low-water mark of his presidency". The Afrikaans-language daily Beeld said in an editorial it was a shame that Mandela had not spread the blame to include his own party. The Sowetan, the country's largest circulation daily, echoed Mandela's sentiments and said the challenge of reconciliation rested more heavily on the NP and the white Afrikaner-based Freedom Front, than it did on the ANC. Political observers said the tone of the farewell address -- which ministers said represented the collective view of the ANC leadership -- was surprising in its bitterness.