What is really meant by 'development' in 21st-century post-apartheid South Africa? What are the challenges and complexities of real transformation in this context? The contributions in this book address the ways in which people in all sectors of South African society are confronting its development dilemmas - from the energy crisis, environmental sustainability, and environmental justice, to grassroots social movements, problems of policy implementation, land and agricultural reform, and gender inequality. Written by leading academics and activists, this book is an essential and illuminating in-depth study of the dilemmas facing post-apartheid South Africa, and the historical, political, economic, and social context out of which a new democracy is being built. Collectively, the authors suggest that there is no easy way to attain development - it is a process, not an event, and is fraught with failures and loss, as well as gains.

The book, made up of three parts, covers a wide spectrum of political economy issues on post-apartheid South Africa. Although the text is mainly descriptive, to explain various areas of the political economy of post-apartheid South Africa, the first and the last parts provide illuminating insights on the kind of society that is emerging during the twenty-one years of democracy in the country. The book discusses important aspects of the political history of apartheid South Africa and the evolution of post-apartheid society, including an important recap of the history of southern Africa before colonialism. The text is a comprehensive description of numerous political economy phenomena since South Africa gained its political independence and covers some important themes that have not been discussed in detail in other publications on post-apartheid South Africa. The book also updates earlier work of the author on policy and law making, land and agriculture, education and training as well as on poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa thereby providing a wide-ranging overview of the socio-economic development approaches followed by the successive post-apartheid administrations. Interestingly, three chapters focus on various aspects of the post-apartheid South African economy: economic policies, economic empowerment and industrial development. Through the lens of the notion of democratic developmental state and taking apartheid colonialism as a point of departure, the book suggests that, so far, post-apartheid South Africa has mixed socio-economic progress. The author’s extensive experience in the South African government ensures that the book has policy relevance while it is also theoretically sound. The text is useful for anyone who wants to understand the totality of the policies and legislation as well as the political economy interventions pursued since 1994 by the South African Government.

Introduction -- Development dilemmas -- The post-apartheid development experience -- Evolution of policy in post-apartheid South Africa -- Nation building -- Social and economic transformation : policies and prospects -- Conclusion: towards an inclusive society

This title was first published in 2002: Has the South African post-apartheid state been able to achieve its stated goals? What has been the relationship between the process of educational reform and the impact on the state of the Constitution and other laws? This seminal book responds to these questions by examining the development and implementation of social policy in South Africa during the first years of democratic government, particularly in relation to education. The post-apartheid state was immediately faced with a broad spectrum of political, social, economic and human rights issues. The research analyzes whether the aims and objectives of the new administration were achieved; no other single collection of research in South Africa collectively explores the issues raised in this endeavour. The book will appeal to a wide range of professionals including researchers, academics, planners, policy makers, public servants and postgraduate students.

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This book critically examines the challenges, successes, and failures of the post-1994 South African state against the humane values enshrined in its constitution: nonracial democracy and respect for all generations of human rights—civil, political, social, economic, resources and the environment and gender and communication. The book sheds light on the difficulties faced by the State when trying to bring together a diverse society comprised of traditional South African, Western-based and "other" African (immigrant) cultures into a cohesive nation with a common South African identity. The views of the essays may not be entirely consistent and the issues they raise may be contentious. This merely affirms the truism that the State is a contested terrain. The aim of this book is to deepen the search for an understanding of the theory of the State as it applies to a transforming society such as ours and to trudge the dividing line between theory and practice so they can feed into each other in a progressive spiral towards the desired end-state.