Conflict transformation in South Africa

After reviewing the main approaches to conflict settlement, this article shows how the root-causes of South African conflict during the apartheid period were related to its conflict structures, and how South Africa from the mid-1980s to the present seems to provide a relatively successful case of conflict transformation. In the case of conflict transformation what is required is the elimination of the roots of conflicts at the level of political, perceptual and economic structures. It is argued that in South Africa conflict transformation has been especially successful in transforming the political and perception structures, but less successful in transforming the structures of economic conflict.