ABSTRACT
The role of external pressures, particularly of economic sanctions and disinvestment, has, of course, been one of the central issues in the public debate about Western policy towards South Africa. The internal political crisis was, of course, precipitated largely by the rejection by many blacks of the new constitution. The analyses presented indicate that there are many in South Africa, both white and black, who do recognize the urgency of the need to find a way out of the impasse. The government may have relegated the reform process to the back-burner, but many factors and forces with the potential for long-term transformation of South African society are still operative. Both Stanley Uys, writing about developments within the ruling white oligarchy, and Merle Lipton, writing about the reform process, support the further argument that the business community in fact lacks the presumed capacity to force the government into major political concessions to the black majority.
