The end of the apartheid regime has had highly significant implications not only for South Africa, but for the wider Southern African region. As part of thes colonial heritage, the neighbouring states are closely and asymmetrically linked to the South African economy. The apartheid regime had pursued aggressive policies of destabilisation against its neighbours, particularly against Mozambique and Angola, in order to cut the South African and Namibian liberation movements off from external support and in order to destroy alternative development models, particularly left-wing ones. The difficult heritage of the apartheid era, of asymmetrical regional relations and past destabilisation policies on the one hand, and the end of state socialism and the global shift toward neo-liberalism on the other, have been conditioning factors for post-apartheid transformations. This introductory article gives an overview on political, economic and social transformations, their structural constraints and main political and social actors.
