SOUTH-AFRICA - FROM APARTHEID TO DEMOCRACY

Current prospects of an orderly and rapid peaceful transition from the apartheid system to a new democratic order appear both uncertain and remote. Endemic violence has unleashed a process of social disintegration and polarization. A new constitutional order will have to be negotiated by all the groups of the old privileged, apartheid South Africa and all those national and local groups that have been engaged in fighting the apartheid system. Several specific steps must be taken to safeguard the transition, in particular with respect to the elections and curbing the current violence. A new government will be faced with an enormous crisis of expectations. After three centuries of colonial and race rule there are structures which will be extremely difficult to transform. Despite the problems, however, the people of South Africa are looking forward to the early transformation to a Constitutionally Democratic South Africa.