ABSTRACT
Since the title of this chapter may appear somewhat ambiguous, it seems necessary to begin with an explanation of the term ‘post-apartheid economy and to indicate what I understand by the word ‘after’ in this context. Essentially, ‘post-apartheid economy’ will be used to designate an economy in transition from the situation that prevailed during the period of Nationalist government from 1948 to 1994 (or perhaps 1990 is a better end-year) to a situation that is still somewhere in the not-so-well-defined future. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the ‘post-apartheid economy’ has been one of the hottest discussion topics in South Africa. One way or another all South Africans are concerned with the issues of growth and redistribution. The apartheid era is over and the country finds itself in a period of transition, the post-apartheid period, but to what? Here, ‘after’ will be defined as the period when, if ever, the government led by the African National Congress (ANC) will have reached its development objectives.
