ABSTRACT
The South African transition from apartheid to the country’s first democratically elected government in 1994 is widely acclaimed as an example of a successful political transition that avoided the predicted bloodbath and political chaos. Some among the oppressed people of South Africa, however, had quite unrealistic expectations of what the new age could usher in. This has contributed, two decades later, to a wave of disillusionment and resentment in the country, raising questions about the viability of the soft South African transition. It also adds to the global debate on the nature of political transitions from dictatorship and authoritarian rule to the beginning of democracy.
