POSTAPARTHEID SOUTH-AFRICA - THE KEY PATTERNS EMERGE

Citation
B. Freund et V. Padayachee, POSTAPARTHEID SOUTH-AFRICA - THE KEY PATTERNS EMERGE, Economic and political weekly, 33(20), 1998, pp. 1173-1180
Citations number
4
Categorie Soggetti
Political Science","Planning & Development
ISSN journal
00129976
Volume
33
Issue
20
Year of publication
1998
Pages
1173 - 1180
Database
ISI
SICI code
0012-9976(1998)33:20<1173:PS-TKP>2.0.ZU;2-7
Abstract
While it would be unreasonable to pillory the country beyond its just deserts, if one is forced to sum up the most striking features of cont emporary South Africa, they would have to include the growing ascendan ce of a corporate-cum-state black elite with little effective challeng e either from below or from the formerly powerful white minority, the relative modesty of social change, the disintegration of Left critique s in favour of a crude materialist and instrumental view of life, the pursuit of economic policies that will perpetuate existing inequalitie s and power relations even while deracialising and, most strikingly, t he failure to find a modus operandi that will break the historic walls of privilege in this society of extreme contrasts to create a real ne w South African identity. A consequence may well be a process of long- term civic decay coupled with a vibrant if extremely inequitable civil society.