HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICIES IN THE NEW SOUTH-AFRICA

South Africa's first democratic government is today confronted with th e challenge of recasting apartheid social and health policies, transfo rming a moribund bureaucracy's mode of governance, and restructuring a variety of public and private institutions, including the national De partment of Health. In the attempt to redress racial, gender, and clas s inequities, enormous barriers confront health policy analysts and pl anners, progressive politicians, and activists within civil society wh o work in the field of health. This article sets the broad social poli cy context for the emerging strategies, documents some of the continui ng inequities in the health sector, and recounts some recent experienc es in one of the nine provinces (KwaZulu-Natal), to illustrate the dif ficulties and potentials that change of this magnitude presents under the prevailing conditions of neoliberal politics and economics.