Suchergebnisse

"This outstanding and original work goes to the heart of South Africa's political problems - doubts as to the sustainability of the post-apartheid settlement, beset with divisions in the ruling ANC, factionalism, corruption and the widening of fault-lines in state and society. The'leadership issue'has become key and this will be the first specific examination of leadership in the light of Mandela's legacy and its effect on his successor as potential and actual leaders - all in'the shadow of Mandela'as the architect of the transition from apartheid to democracy, and with overarching moral authority and international reputation. Alexander Johnston shows how his successors are judged against Mandela's achievements, including the potentially impressive'lost'leaders and concentrating on his immediate successors, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. The book concludes with an in-depth assessment of new president Cyril Ramaphosa's potential to be a leader for a'new dawn'. This is an objective and critical work by a close observer who acknowledges the achievement of South African leadership but is acutely aware of the doubts as to the sustainability of South Africa's hard won democratic settlement. An essential read for all readers interested in leadership and in the traumatic history and future of Africa's leading state, as the continent rises to global importance"--Provided by publisher

At the heart of South Africa's 'miracle' transition from intractable ethno-racial conflict to democracy was an improvised nation born out of war weariness, hope, idealism and calculated pragmatism on the part of the elites who negotiated the compromise settlement. In the absence of any of the conventional bonds of national consciousness, the improvised nation was fixed on the civic identity and national citizenship envisaged in the new constitution. In the twentieth anniversary year of the country's democracy, South Africa reviews the progress of nation-building in post-apartheid South Africa

The result of South Africa's first democratic election in 1994 had something in common with a successful children's birthday party. It was clear from the beginning whose day it was and where the bulk of the spoils would go, but the failure of the African National Congress (ANC) to win a two-thirds majority consoled the others. And those guests who might have spoiled the occasion with tears and tantrums were rewarded too, with control of provincial parliaments in Kwa-Zulu-Natal and the Western Cape, as well as positions in a government of national unity. These factors helped to make the 1994 election an occasion for general, not just partisan, rejoicing.Divorced from the euphoria and sense of relief that attended the 1994 poll and robbed of any uncertainty about the outcome, observers of 1999's election have had to work much harder to read its significance.