Introduction

Since the mid-2000s, South Africa has appeared to be at a crossroads. Socioeconomic progress has been weaker than expected in the democratic dispensation, although many initiatives aimed at such transformation have been pursued since 1994. Democratic South Africa's earliest socioeconomic ideals can be traced back to the Freedom Charter (ANC, 1955). Those ideals have been woven into various laws and policies governing the new dispensation. The various pieces of legislation, among other things, set out to level the playing field, so that citizens can enjoy the benefits of a growing and inclusive economy. The degree of work done prior to the transition to democracy and in the first ten years of the democratic dispensation, is often taken for granted. The aim was to ensure that South Africa would become a country of which future generations can be proud. Arguably, a great deal of effort went into ensuring that the ugly memory of the colonial and apartheid past would be buried, and that those repulsive memories could be used to advance socioeconomic transformation.

For that reason it is important to examine socioeconomic transformation in South Africa, in the context of whether memory is indeed being used as a transformative instrument. To that end, the present chapter draws insights from South Africa's political trajectories, to examine the role of memory in socioeconomic transformation. Here, the focus is on the meaning and significance of memory in understanding the major socioeconomic challenges confronting South Africa since the dawn of democracy. The chapter will reveal how memory appropriation plays a critical role in recent developments across the length and breadth of South Africa, particularly calls for a revisiting of issues once deemed settled in the political landscape. The author of the chapter concludes that although memory informs the demands for radical socioeconomic transformation in this country, it equally provides a solid basis for the resolution of socioeconomic contradictions of a historical nature, and does so in a more sustainable and democratic manner.

The analysis begins with an examination of the challenges confronting South Africa. Next, the focus is on the critical socioeconomic ramifications of the colonial and apartheid periods, followed by a discussion of memory as an instrument for social and economic transformation in the context of this country.