“This article explores how diverse views of South Africa’s future are sustained by genuine imponderables arising from the interaction between politics and policy. The first section draws on recent advances in the local academic literature to investigate the implications, positive and negative, of one-party electoral dominance. The second and third sections assess the reliability of the mechanisms by which an electorally dominant ANC government can be rendered politically accountable. This article closes with an analysis of the implications of the AIDS pandemic for South Africa’s future.”
