Profound changes have been introduced that have seen South Africa become a leader in Africa and a respected member of the international community of nations.
Democratic policies have created the best possible conditions for success. It is only with the broadest possible participation that any country will successfully resolve development problems. Non-democratic forms of governance have been shown over and over again to be inappropriate. While democracy does not guarantee good outcomes and is slow at times, it creates a basis for overcoming the most intractable of difficulties.
The country does face immense challenges. The incidence of HIV/AIDS is much too high, there are far too many people without a job and the allocation of resources remains racially skewed. As wealth disparities narrow somewhat between blacks and whites, those between blacks threaten to grow.
