South Africa is one of the most developed nations in Africa, although, like all other developed nations, this has not always been the case. The most important developments occurred over a long period of time and were probably driven by many different factors. Previous literature and theories tell what helped the nation reach a state of development. One such theory is that the democratic institutions previously established by apartheid contributed to the government's gradual transition to democracy. Furthermore, an indigenous model employed in South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, also contributed to the transition from the old apartheid system of governance to the uniformly applied democracy it currently enjoys. A case study of poverty and well-being in South Africa in the post-apartheid era sheds light on the truth of these theories. My hypothesis, based on World Bank data and this case study, is that South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, along with the democratic institutions previously established by the apartheid regime, helped the nation democratize. However, some of the “traditions” of the apartheid era contributed to stunting South Africa's economic development. South Africa was initially colonized by the Dutch, who arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. However, narrators of South African history, mainly Afrikaners, claim that the area was essentially uninhabited at the time of the Dutch's arrival, in reality there was they were already indigenous tribes that the Dutch then enslaved. Moving forward to 1795, the Dutch colony was conquered by the English. Due to the British takeover, the Boers of the Cape Colony, the Dutch settlers and their slaves, migrated to the interior of Africa in a… middle of paper… society has to do things. The TRC was their indigenous way of overcoming the cruelties that characterized the apartheid era. The TRC was, for this reason, a crucial component for the transition towards true democracy. For this reason the indigenous development model is easily identifiable within South Africa's development path. South Africa's unique indigenous model falls within the fusion of traditional and Western models of governance, in Wiarda's definition of the term. (talk about the fusion between apartheid, the Western part and the TRC). Works Cited O'Neil, P. H., Fields, K., & Share, D. (2010). Cases of comparative politics. (3rd ed., pp. 490-530). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.Wiarda, H. (2007). Comparative politics: approaches and problems. (pages 106-128). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.