Dermatology in South Africa

Abstract

THESE ARE dramatic times in South Africa. 1994 has seen my country transformed. A minority regime, complacent and corrupt with 40 years of power, responds to a besieged economy with the pragmatism and courage of its president, F. W. de Klerk. He meshes in felicitous synergy with the world's most famous political prisoner, Nelson Mandela. South Africa draws back from the brink of civil war and anarchy, and the Government of National Unity is elected. Now we face the task of rebuilding the economy, dealing with a high level of unemployment, violence, and crime that has been aggravated by decades of poverty and the destruction of family life. It says much for President Mandela and the ''Rainbow People'' of South Africa (the phrase coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the varied multiethnic population of our country) that there is cautious optimism. Numerous political exiles have returned. Even the most conservative