ABSTRACT
South Africa is a multicultural society. However, before the 1994 transition to democracy little account was taken of the multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural nature of South African society (Sarkin, 1998b). Indeed, the state catered almost exclusively to the White, Christian, Afrikaans, patriarchal minority (Sarkin, 1998a). It is not surprising, therefore, that South Africa was a highly polarized and divided society. Many people had been dispossessed of their land, had had their language and cultures marginalized, and had suffered gross human rights violations (Varney & Sarkin, 1997). The majority of South Africans were denied access to an enormous variety of amenities, institutions, and opportunities, including many places and types of employment, particularly in state institutions. Divisions existed between Black and White but there were also divisions based on ethnicity, class, culture, religion, and language, which apartheid specifically accentuated.
