New South Africa, noun phrase

Forms:
Also New SA, and with small first initial.
South Africa in the post-apartheid era. Now often used ironically.
Note:
Although this phrase has been used at various times with reference to real or proposed political changes, its present wide currency resulted from its use by the National Party during the election campaign of 1989, and, more particularly, by the then State President F.W. de Klerk on 2 February 1990, during a speech to Parliament in which he announced the unbanning of left-wing political organizations, and committed the government to the abolition of apartheid legislation.
1989 Daily Dispatch 5 Sept. 5 (advt)Vote for the NP for a great and just, a New South Africa.
1990 F.W. De Klerk in Hansard 2 Feb. 2I wish to ask all who identify yourselves with the broad aim of a new South Africa, and that is the overwhelming majority: — Let us put petty politics aside...Help us build a broad consensus about the fundamentals of a new, realistic and democratic dispensation.
1990 Weekend Argus 17 Feb. 12The ‘new’ South Africa is barely two weeks old and already a distinctly new political style is taking shape.
1990 Sunday Times 3 June 18In the new South Africa — an expression that is rapidly being devalued through the tedium of repetition — military service will obviously have to be as non-racial as the politics.
1990 J. Scott in Weekend Post 16 June 14Jan H— of Kuruman seized on the Peninsula squatter problem, declaring: ‘The people of Hout Bay can’t open their windows, because they smell the new South Africa.’
1990 R. Van Tonder in Frontline Sept. 27The much-trumpeted ‘New South Africa’ perpetuates the same old concoction, with nothing changed other than the substitution of white rule by black rule — or power-sharing, on the basis of one rabbit to one horse.
1991 J. Berger in Focus on Afr. Apr.–June 32The Kloppers are refugees from the New South Africa, and everything it stands for: uncertainty, change, and equality.
1991 C. Gregory in Frontline May 20I’ve declared war on ‘the New South Africa’. And I’m out recruiting. I’m not resisting the change, but the words: New South Africa. This phrase may constitute the largest single impediment to a settled future...By casting their eyes skyward in the direction of the imagined glow, people seem to be prevented from thinking sensibly.
1992 S. Sherry in South 27 Feb. 3So you thought that crazy animal called the ‘new’ South Africa had something to do with politics and human rights? Well it doesn’t. It’s about dialling soft porn at R6,60 a minute, legal scratch cards that can win you 50 Grand, topless women on M-Net and on the beach and ‘adult’ magazines in sealed plastic bags.
1992 Sunday Times 7 June 15‘Should inter-racial adoption of orphans be encouraged?’...‘Yes. This is what the new South Africa is all about. It’s about learning to live together.’
1992 ‘Hogarth’ in Sunday Times 17 May 24Hail to the new SA. With Chris Hani’s kids at private school, Joe Slovo in the suburbs and Nelson Mandela in Houghton, it gets more like the old SA every day.
1993 C. Desmond in Daily News 6 Jan. 8The ‘New South Africa’ has yet to be born; conceived in secrecy, intrigue and elitism, umbilically tied to Western values, it could well be aborted.
1994 L. Rampolokeng in Tribute May 30This romantic NSA (New South Africa) has turned me into a globe trotter.
South Africa in the post-apartheid era. Now often used ironically.
Derivatives:
Hence New South African  noun phrase, one living in the New South Africa; one living a changed life in South Africa; adjective, of or pertaining to the New South Africa; New South Africanism  noun phrase, a spirit of co-operation, tolerance, and unity in South African politics and society.
1990 Sunday Times 4 Mar. 25While there is much talk of a new South Africa, a new South Africanism is still lacking. This can only be embodied in a truly non-racial togetherness.
1990 B. Breytenbach in Weekly Mail June 5The onus is on the ANC:..to promote the ‘new South African’.
1994 R. Malan in Style May 35I saw him play one night in a Johannesburg pub and it was the standard New South African lovefest of the late Eighties: lots of mixed couples, pale left-wingers and black leather-jacketed creatures from the art and fashion fringe cracking pipes with Sowetan Rastafarians in the alleys off Commissioner Street.
1994 C. Bauer in Sunday Times 12 June 16Substance abuse can take the edge off the trauma of being a new South African.
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new oath, noun phrasen. phr.NG, adjectiveadj.
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