It is not a revolutionary observation that South Africa is at a crossroads. On the one hand things look good: Mandela is free, the ANC is unbanned, the pass laws have been officially dropped, and a constitutional conference about the final abolishment of the apartheid state and the institution of a new state based on democratic power-sharing is at an advanced stage of planning. On the other side things are not substantially different. The apartheid state is still there, blacks still do not have the vote, and most important of all, the inequality and the resultant apalling living conditions for both blacks and coloureds are still the same. But the mood is different. It is an explosive mix of political euphoria and unchanged poverty and social inequality. In this situation one thing has changed radically: the poHtical discourse
