The Early Mbeki Years and the Challenge of Transition in South Africa

The Early Mbeki Years and the Challenge of Transition in South Africa: South Africa after Mandela examines the politics of transition in South Africa. If Nelson Mandela was the reconciliation president, Thabo Mbeki set himself the task of becoming the transformation president. The book discusses, as case study, some issues of national significance in South Africa highlighted in the 18-month period from the national elections of June 1999 to the local government elections of December 2000. The topics include: racism and its specific South African manifestations; realignment in South African politics; land and agrarian reform; restructuring the South African economy; reforming the education and health systems; and the African renaissance. The book thus deals with President Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki’s transformation agenda and seeks to answer, by looking at different aspects of contemporary life in South Africa, the question: What characterised Mbeki’s turn as president of the Republic of South Africa? The conclusion reached is characteristically Gramscian: “The old is dying but the new cannot yet be born. In this interregnum there arises a diversity of morbid symptoms.”