New Internationalist NI548, Mar/Apr 2024

South Africa: 30 Years Later
AMANDLA!

Thirty years on from the end of apartheid, South Africa is in the headlines for prosecuting Israel at the International Court of Justice.

As elections approach, we look at the troubles facing this young democracy and ask if this new leading role in global politics could provoke a reckoning at home.

Since our first issue in 1973, South Africa has never been far from the pages of this magazine. In our March 1995 edition, which had the same theme as this one, editor David Ransom used his column to describe a chance encounter with a watch repairer in Johannesburg. Des 'reckoned it would be another 10 years, perhaps 20, before things started to improve'. He was 'prepared to wait, though he'd rather not – he and his family had already been waiting 15 years for a house'. It's now 30 years since the end of apartheid, and many South Africans are still waiting.

Elsewhere in this issue, we examine how Italy's far-right PM Giorgia Meloni gets a free pass from international leaders, and our Agony Uncle ponders how to advise the next generation of activists.