“In the wake of South Africa’s first all-race elections in April 1994, President Nelson Mandela declared that nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of implementation of the ANC’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Initially, there was very wide support for the RDP. Within two years, however, the programme had become so discredited that the separate RDP ministry that had been created in the President’s own office was abolished. This paper explains the failure of the RDP, once the centrepiece of the new government’s policy programme, and assesses the prospects for future socio-economic reconstruction efforts.”
