Editorial from ROAPE Volume 3 Number 7
Special Issue on South Africa

Profound political change occurs in discontinuous leaps. When such a shift is in the offing analytic uncertainty multiplies and the range of political possibilities expands. As the major class forces coalesce and move towards confrontation, the petty bourgeoisie and the lumpen are caught in the middle vacillating more violently than ever as they are forced by events to take sides. Their potential for heroic acts and for dastardly deeds becomes virtually simultaneous. At such times analysis is wholly submerged in praxis. It is at such times that history is made most directly by men and women. Such a time is fast approaching in South Africa.