ABSTRACT
The early 1990s in South Africa are witnessing a historical event: the gradual dismantling of apartheid - an economic system that has been based on the systematic use of racial discrimination and that has forced the African majority to bear the costs of creating a high standard of living for a white minority. Racial discrimination in South Africa extends all the way back to the arrival of the first European settlers in 1652, and it has continued to pervade social and economic life in the country ever since. This, however, does not mean that the system has been a static one. The goals of racial discrimination as well as the means employed to reach these goals have varied over time. The system has been both adaptive and dynamic, changing when economic circumstances have demanded change. Today, we are witnessing what is hoped to be the last act: the crumbling of apartheid in a situation in which racial discrimination has become increasingly unable to meet the goals of a white minority.
