The South Africans have arrived: post-apartheid corporate expansion into Africa

Abstract

Shaking off decades of apartheid-era isolation, South African executives, both black and white, are moving north to buy struggling banks, rebuild rundown railways, and bring first-world technology to an impoverished continent. This explosion of trade and investment is one of the most vivid illustrations of South Africa's metamorphosis since apartheid ended in 1994. Once a pariah state, South Africa now seems poised to dominate the continent that once shunned its products and leaders.