As South Africa moves away from the initial period of change following the end of apartheid, the legacy of centuries of repression of its majority populations by political and economic deprivation threatens to undermine the consensus on which the new regime continues to depend for its stability. In a few weeks' time, the second anniversary of the historic general election in April 1994 - the first based on universal franchise - will be marked. Instead of the chaotic euphoria that ushered democracy in, there are all the classic signs of social disintegration, of persistent racism among sections of the white population, and deepening strains between the two major groupings of blacks.
Several of these elements are present in the trial of Gen Magnus Malan, the minister of defence during the last brutal phase of apartheid. The strategy of assassination he is charged with involved, according to the indictment, a bizarre alliance with the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party to murder members of the African National Congress. Among his codefendants are former high ranking officers in the South African army and security police and a number of KwaZulu policemen who are accused of having carried out the murders. It is difficult to imagine a more extraordinary illustration of the corrupt nature of the former regime than these allegations, or one which, if proved, can more severely test the fragile structure of post apartheid politics.
President Mandela rejected heavyweight pressure not to allow Gen Malan to be put in the dock from, among others, the former (apartheid era) president, Mr P.W. Botha, who warned him of the danger of unleashing the "tiger in the Afrikaner". Mr Mandela's reply, that failing to go ahead with the trial risked rousing "the tiger among the masses of the people", encapsulated the dilemma that any new born democracy faces in dealing with its past: should the ghosts be quietly laid to rest or brought out and therapeutically exposed? The answer must differ according to circumstances; but the allegations against Gen Malan and his co defendants go so directly to the heart of the violence and divisiveness fostered by apartheid that a decision not to go ahead would have suggested an uncharacteristic lack of courage rather than balance on the part of Mr Mandela.
Further problems are likely if the trial produces evidence of the complicity of the Inkatha leader, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, in the assassination plot, or if other major Afrikaner figures are implicated.
Creating a genuinely equal society will produce many such challenges, as the case of the integration of Potgietersrus primary school indicated last month. Extreme inequality of wealth, an economy which grows at the same rate as the growth of population, and an enormous shortfall in basic infrastructures such as water and housing would be a formidable test for the government even if political stability were possible to guarantee. Responsible leadership is not lacking, but the great need is for continuing international support, moral and financial. With further stresses inevitable when Mr Mandeia's moderating influence is removed, the problems are not likely to diminish.