Health and health care in post-apartheid South Africa: a future vision.

This paper accepts the idea that patterns and distribution of health care and resources are determined by "realpolitik," and that South Africa is at present in the throes of a political revolution, the outcome of which is bound to reflect a considerable degree of "self-determination" of the majority black (African, Asian, and mixed-race) people. It is postulated that the health services-and other pre-determinants of the health of the black people-will be shaped by a mixed socialist-capitalist economy and a socialized or nationalized form of health care service. This is because all the leading players in the revolutionary stakes, especially the exiled African National Congress of South Africa (ANC) and the above-ground United Democratic Front (UDF) and its affiliate, the National Alternative Medical and Dental Association (NAMDA), who are the front-runners, advocate these kind of changes for the future of South Africa, as exemplified in the ANC's Freedom Charter of 1955.Powerful political forces, both inside South Africa and in the Western World, are resisting this outcome, despite it clearly being the democratic will of the people, as shown by all the polls. These reactionary strategies would leave the health of most blacks in South Africa and Namibia little improved over its present status.