Post Apartheid: The South African Election and Development Policy

Featuring
Karol Boudreaux
Senior Research Fellow, Lead Researcher, Enterprise Africa!
Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Click here to view Ms. Boudreaux's Powerpoint Presentation.

With the advent of a new political party, the Congress of the People (COPE) (a breakaway group from the ruling African National Congress (ANC)), this presidential election will be the most significant event since the end of the Apartheid.  It will not only have a substantial impact on the future of South Africa but of the southern African region more broadly.

It has been fifteen years since the end of the Apartheid and despite aggressive attempts to improve South Africa's social and economic situation, the country still struggles with high unemployment rates, corruption, and a spreading AIDS epidemic. Locals, international organizations, and foreign governments have invested a large amount of resources to help restore this country and region. In 2007 alone USAID spent $128 million on development programs in South Africa. Could this new election open new doors for development or show progress towards a less corrupt government?

To discuss this upcoming election and its potential impact on economic growth and development, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University is proud to present a lecture by Karol Boudreaux. Ms. Boudreaux is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center; lead researcher for Enterprise Africa!, a research project that investigates, analyzes, and reports on enterprise-based solutions to poverty in Africa; and a member of the Working Group on Property Rights of the U.N.'s Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. Join us as we address such questions as:

• What are the key policy issues facing South Africa today?
• What effect will the election have on economic growth and development in South Africa and its neighboring countries?
• What implications does the election have on U.S. policy toward Sub-Saharan Africa?