Introduction

Abstract

For at least a quarter of a century prior to 1990 observers of the South African scene predicted that apartheid would end in a blood bath; instead, at the eleventh hour, there was an orderly transfer of political power by means of universal franchise elections from the white minority to the black majority and the New South Africa was born. Whatever had gone before, this represented a triumph for peaceful as opposed to violent methods of political change. The problems that faced the new government of the African National Congress (ANC) were – and remain – formidable.