Echoes of Change
South Africa’s Journey from 1994 to 2024
The system of apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994 with the first free and democratic elections. Thirty years after the African National Congress (ANC) fought for the political and legal freedom of black South Africans, the former liberation movement and now long-standing ruling party faces the very real prospect of losing its parliamentary majority for the first time. Gratitude, hope, and loyalty to the ANC have largely been exhausted in light of the disastrous economic and social conditions wracking the country. Indeed, South Africa has the highest inequality of any nation on Earth. In no area is this more evident than in the land question, the primary focus of our dossier Echoes of Change: South Africa’s Journey from 1994 to 2024.
Inequality is most visible in the scars that settler colonialism has left on the country and in the geography of apartheid still visible throughout South Africa. Overcrowded informal settlements and townships lie alongside leafy suburbs and sprawling commercial farms that are almost exclusively White-owned. Unemployment and a lack of prospects determine the prospects of young people in particular, while profits, such as those from the mining districts, continue to flow mainly abroad, while value created in the country itself is eaten up by widespread corruption.
Echoes of Change present articles, essays, analyses, and videos that approach the topic from different perspectives.
