>>> now an update on the situation in south africa since it transitioned from apartheid. >>> good afternoon. welcome to the cato institute. i'm marian tupy. before we start, a quick housekeeping item. the person who was supposed to be a respond ent today was taken ill and as a consequence won't be participating in today's forum. instead, frans will talk for a little longer than we originally assumed, for roughly 35 to 40 minutes after which we will have a q & a and we expect to finish perhaps a little earlier maybe at 1:15 or so. with that, allow me to introduce