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These essays give a multidimensional perspective on South Africa's democracy as it turns twenty, and will be of interest to general readers while being particularly useful to students and researchers.

The death of Nelson Mandela on 5 December 2013 was in a sense a wake-up call for South Africans, and a time to reflect on what has been achieved since ‘those magnificent days in late April 1994’ (as the editors of this volume put it) ‘when South Africans of all colours voted for the first time in a democratic election’. In a time of recall and reflection it is important to take account, not only of the dramatic events that grip the headlines, but also of other signposts that indicate the shape and characteristics of a society. The New South African Review looks, every year, at some of these signposts, and the essays in this fourth volume of the series again examine and analyse a broad spectrum of issues affecting the country. They tackle topics as diverse as the state of organised labour; food retailing; electricity generation; access to information; civil courage; the school system; and – looking outside the country to its place in the world – South Africa’s relationships with north-east Asia, with Israel and with its neighbours in the southern African region. Taken together, these essays give a multidimensional perspective on South Africa’s democracy as it turns twenty, and will be of interest to general readers while being particularly useful to students and researchers.

Introduction. South Africa's fragile democracy: twenty years on / Devan Pillay and Roger Southall --. - pt. 1. Ecology, economy and labour. Introduction / Devan Pillay --. - The South African labour market after eighteen years : It's class struggle, stupid! / Nicolas Pons-Vignon and Miriam Di Paola --. - The state of organised labour : still living like there's no tomorrow / Ian Macun -- . - Citizen Wal-Mart? South African food retailing and selling development / Bridget Kenny --. - Transcending South Africa's oil dependency / Jeremy Wakeford --. - The politics of electricity generation in South Africa / Keith Gottschalk --. - pt. 2. Power, politics and participation. --. - Introduction / Prishani Naidoo --. - Platinum, poverty and princes in post-apartheid South Africa : new laws, old repertoires / Aninka Claassens and Boitumelo Matlala --. - amaDiba moment : how civil courage confronted sttate and corporate collusion / John G.I. Clarke --. - Secrecy and power in South Africa / Dale T. McKinley --. - The contemporary relevance of Black Consciousness in South Africa / Xolela Mangcu --. - Death and the modern black lesbian / Zethu Matebeni --. - pt. 3. Public policy and social practice. Introduction / Roger Southall --. - Why does Zimbabwe's school system out-perform South Africa's? / Martin Prew --. - Higher education in 2013: at many crossroads / Ahmed Bawa --. - Democracy without economic emancipation : household relations and policy in South Africa / Sarah Mosoetsa --. - Prisons, the law and overcrowding / Clare Ballard --. - pt. 4. South Africa at large. Introduction / Gilbert M. Khadiagala --. - South Africa in Africa : groping for leadership and muddling through / Gilbert M. Khadiagala --. - South Africa and Israel : from alliance to estrangement / Ran Greenstein --. - South Africa's economic ties with north-east Asia / Scarlett Cornelissen --. - Regional parastatals within South Africa's system of accumulation / Justin van der Merwe --. - The leadership chall

Road maps have become popular in recent African efforts to mediate and resolve conflicts. The African Union singly, or in concert with Regional Economic Communities and international actors, has invoked road maps as mediation and conflict resolution templates in Darfur, Libya, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, and North-South Sudan. Although they are growing in significance, there is very little understanding of their usefulness and efficacy in peacemaking. It is important to understand whether road maps are pathways to peace or simply rhetorical tools that conceal the difficulties of negotiating protracted conflicts. More critical, therefore, is determining whether road maps facilitate or foreclose conflict resolution. This article probes these questions by examining some of the road maps in recent African conflicts with a view to shedding light on their conceptions, deployment, and impact on resolving conflicts. Both as process and content tools, road maps exemplify new collective African approaches to conflict resolution, but they also face severe constraints in managing conflicts that are characterized by deep divisions.

A border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea erupted in violence in 1998, not only because the border itself is ambiguous but because deeper sources of conflict could not be contained by regional institutions.

Like the flow of the Nile, the policy-making environment of ruling élites in Eastern Africa has remained remarkably unaltered over the years. New and old leaderships alike confront the perennial questions of building political authority and legitimacy on fragile socio-economic bases, in addition to finding appropriate modes of inter-state relationships. Uganda has occupied a central place in this structure as a participant in regional economic and political interactions, and since the 1970s as the primary source of instability.

The death of Nelson Mandela on 5 December 2013 was in a sense a wake-up call for South Africans and a time to reflect on what has been achieved since ‘those magnificent days in late April 1994’ (as the editors of this volume put it) ‘when South Africans of all colours voted for the first time in a democratic election’. In a time of reflection it is important to consider, not only of the dramatic events that grip the headlines, but also other signposts that indicate the shape and characteristics of a society. The New South African Review series examines some of these signposts and the essays in this fourth volume analyse a broad spectrum of issues affecting the country, including the state of organised labour; food retailing; electricity generation; access to information; civil courage; the school system; and – looking outside the country to its place in the world – South Africa’s relationships with north-east Asia, with Israel and with its neighbours in the southern African region. Taken together, these essays give a multidimensional perspective on South Africa’s democracy as it turns 20 and will be of interest to general readers while being particularly useful to students and researchers.