This paper considers socio-economic change in South Africa since the end of Apartheid. Ata national level, the democratic transition has eventually led to a division of society into three more or less equal classes: a middle class (or bourgeoisie), a poor lower class (or working class) and an underclass (or lumpenproletariat), whose socio-economic position has deteriorated since 1994. Given this situation of growing inequalities, the government's economic policy will certainly need to take a more social turn in the near future.