South Africa: At the Crossroads

Mandela. The name reverberates like a mantra through South Africa these days, half in excitement, half in anxiety. Mandela will soon be free. Mandela will solve the problem. If Mandela can't do it, who can?

South Africa is at a crossroads. For the first time since the National Party came to power in 1948 and began introducing the laws of apartheid, or separateness, there exists a widespread acceptance of the need to change. With the exception of a diehard minority, most of South Africa's 5 million whites have gradually resigned themselves to the fact that they cannot continue forever to dominate...