The article focuses on South Africa as an example of a post‐conflict society. It reflects on the levels of social cohesion that might be expected, after a period of deep‐rooted social conflict. Reviewing material from a number of recent surveys carried out in the country from the theoretical perspective of the analytical conflict resolution school, and taking cognisance of a number of recent political events that reveal that real fault‐lines still persist, it leads us to question whether the democratic political settlement achieved in 1994 will prove durable as levels of social tension continue to rise.
The primary motivation for this research, in which a qualitative method was employed, was to examine political apathy amongst students at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. The secondary motivation was to question whether youth political apathy threatens the consolidation of democracy. The researchers arranged four focus groups at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. A purposive sampling technique was utilised. All 50 participants in the study were Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University undergraduate and postgraduate black students, with ages ranging from 21 to 35 years. The researchers encouraged participants to have maximum participation in the focus group deliberations. The researchers also made use of elite interviews in the study. The findings of this study suggest that political apathy does exist amongst students at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Most of the participants in the focus groups indicated that young people in post-apartheid South Africa have no interest in politics.
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