POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

In 1994 Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa, having campaigned on promises of improved education, housing, healthcare, and employment for South Africans. His election marked the end of apartheid and the most important political transition in the history of modern Africa. How has South Africa fared in the eight years since the end of apartheid? What are most significant gains for the people of South Africa, and in what ways does the country still have a long way to go?

Presenters: Isaac Shongwe ’87, Wesleyan Trustee, and Managing Director of Letsema Consulting Company, a firm that specializes in bridging the gap between black and white businesses and cultural integration initiatives in South Africa; Kayonia Whetstone ’02, graduating senior who studied South Africa’s education system and labor history at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa, through Wesleyan’s study abroad program; Vuyani Sifiniza ’02, graduating senior who majored in government and was born and raised in South Africa; Thomas Bridges ’03, government and economics major who worked in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2000, counseling HIV and AIDS patients at a community health center.