Delaying Tactics by the Democratic South African Government on Reform

Some of the many problems South Africa now faces—such as the conflict over land ownership—predate apartheid, but by far the majority can be traced to that era. Most obviously: the impoverished townships and weak educational system are the result of decades of spending policies that deliberately left black South African communities underdeveloped. However, the current style of governance and the normalization of corruption began during the apartheid era as well. Those legacies have been difficult to escape and continue to bedevil the country today.South Africa’s problems defy easy solutions. Since Mandela’s death in 2013, reappraisals of his presidency have tempered his saintly legacy; Mandela himself had admitted that he had not done enough to combat the AIDS epidemic. That he could have solved the entrenched problems in five years as president seems unlikely, and South Africa continues to grapple with them today.