Question

how do you see tge cultural transformation for companies in South Africa

Answer 1

South Africa's successful change

South Africa has had an astonishingly positive, stable development. The feared "Balkanization" after the end of apartheid did not materialize; there is a democratic normality. A cardinal problem of the new South Africa remains however independent: The great discrepancy between "first" and "third world" in one country.

1. Cultural transformation

Introduction

The new South Africa is - based on "African standards" - an exemplary pluralistic democracy. The political system allows fair elections, freedom of expression for all citizens and the media and has established the rule of law. In addition, a decade after the end of apartheid in South Africa, there is stability and a state of largely democratic normality that seemed unimaginable before the great political change. This was initiated in February 1990 by the then President Frederic W. de Klerk when he released Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison and tore down the South African "wall" between black and white. Official negotiations to overcome segregation began shortly afterwards.

Only an intensive elite compromise of the old political, intellectual and economic leadership with the upcoming black political class around the great reconciler Mandela made peaceful coexistence possible. From the impasse of apartheid - which was characterized by "negative stability", in which the white regime had to mobilize all its powers to maintain itself and the black opposition was not strong enough to overcome it - the South African developed over four difficult negotiation years Miracle of "general democratization. With the agreement on the transitional constitution of November 1993, it received its centerpiece - even before the democratic founding elections in April 1994 symbolized the beginning of a new era. On May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first freely elected president.

Since then, political equality for all South Africans has been firmly anchored. So far, three national parliamentary and regional elections as well as two local elections have taken place in the new South Africa - with the results last confirmed in April 2004: the black majority (almost 80 percent of the approximately 46 million South Africans) have a decisive political weight over "their" representatives . But also the whites (about ten percent), which are still dominant in the economy, as well as colored people and Indians (together also about ten percent) are more than proportionally represented in political life. The ANC has a stable two-thirds majority and (since 2004) has been the head of government in all nine provinces - four of them have recently become women.

Because the supremacy of the old (white) elites has so far remained largely unchanged in many areas of society, it is legitimate to speak of a "narrow transition" in South Africa, which "only" changed the political balance of power. [3] What is new, however, is a growing black upper and middle class, which is why the "positive stability" now seems much more solid than was imaginable at the end of apartheid. There is a liberal market economy with a guarantee of private ownership, which the ANC Alliance - with its partners Communist Party (SACP) and Federation of Trade Unions (COSATU) - had always propagated to attack until 1994.

Social change

Thus, paradoxical as it may sound, social change in stability can be identified. Because the emancipation of the once completely (because politically and economically) underprivileged has started profoundly and continues without sweeping away everything old. From the point of view of many observers, the balancing act between the majority and minority interests of the social groups was largely successful - albeit from the perspective of those who had not previously benefited from the transformation, or only little from it, inadequate. You have to understand the new South Africa as an "inverse two-thirds society" compared to European and North American conditions, with much more needy than wealthy.

This is the basis for the parallel task of the new South Africa: Many of those who are now politically equal must now also be given more socio-economically without taking too much of the necessary old and new economic and functional elites. Change in stability means: a demanding compromise between development policy dynamics and statics that preserve property and structure. How much change can South Africa take without endangering its functionality?

Important and transition institution

The most important transitional institution between the old and the new South Africa was a national unity government in which all relevant sections of the population were involved through three parties: ANC Alliance, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and (white) National Party (NP). In 1996, however, this special regulation expired - three years earlier than planned because Vice President and NP Chairman Frederik Willem de Klerk could not see any guarantee of white minority influence in the negotiations on the final constitution. [5] A stronger federal order within the bicameral system was his minimal goal, which the ANC denied. Based on the modern liberal constitution, however, in addition to general human rights, at least cultural group rights (language and education)[6] and above all the rule of law and pluralism of parties guaranteed. In addition, an important constitutional court monitors compliance with the constitutional principles. Their authority and the independence of the judiciary (collectively "rule of law") have so far been recognized in an exemplary manner.