Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Tough Road to Prosperity

1996; Council on Foreign Relations; Volume: 75; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/20047492

2327-7793

Richard Brent,

Leadership, Human Resources, Global Affairs

South Africa's democratic election in April 1994 was widely ac claimed as a marvel of our time. A country that eight years earlier many feared was on the edge of civil war negotiated a political com promise that transferred power from the white minority to the black majority. Majority rule will be implemented in two stages; the cur rent government of national unity, which gives all parties of signifi cance a place, yields to unrestricted majority rule in 1999. Since the election, the once-feared threat of right-wing violence has faded. Although extremist Eugene Terre'blanche of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement still appears on his horse from time to time, most conservative Afrikaners accept the new government, which President Nelson Mandela has made easier for them by bend ing over backward to respond to white concerns. And in black com munities there has been little evidence of populist factions in revolt against the compromises of the new government. Unfortunately, economic progress has not matched this rosy polit ical picture. The economy has turned up since the election, but growth for 1995 was still only about 3.5 percent. While that pace is a marked