Problems and Expectations

Abstract

The range of problems facing the post-apartheid government were by any standards daunting. A census of mid-1997 shocked South Africa by revealing that its total population at 38 million was four million less than previously estimated, although this might have been seen as a relief in terms of development needs since most of the ‘lost’ four million had been assumed to be blacks. The new count classified 77 per cent of the population as black, 12 per cent white, 9 per cent coloured and 2 per cent Asian. Of the whites 2.6 million or roughly 60 per cent were Afrikaners. Possessed of the fifth largest population on the African continent and endowed with major resources South Africa will require all these resources and all the energies and co-operation of its people if it is to tackle effectively the mammoth tasks of reconciliation, reconstruction and development that face it.