Abstract
Since the 1994 elections ushered in the Government of National Unity (GNU) led by Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress there have been claims that a stable, multi-racial democratic society has finally triumphed ill South Africa. This article refutes such thesis; it examines the prospects for consolidating democracy, and argues that the lack of significant progress regarding social ( class and race) and economic (ownership) relations under the GNU is likely to precipitate a political crisis. This could produce an authoritarian response and thereby severely compromise the democratic and socio-economic aspirations which inspired the anti-apartheid struggle.