By the time Mandela made way for Thabo Mbeki, the ‘swart gevaar’ of the apartheid government had been transformed into the ‘roi gevaar’ of a capital-friendly ANC government. The spectre of the 'ultra left' all of a sudden loomed large on the horizon of South Africa's new democracy. After an initial spurt of expulsions, a climate of hostility towards any radical critique of ANC policy both within the ANC and the Alliance more generally took hold. A veil of silence and fear descended. As a result of the political crackdown and the accompanying demobilisation of South Africa's previously dynamic civic movement a political vacuum was created. The space was quickly filled by the formation of new social movements as the cumulative effects of neo-liberalism forced the regrouping of poor communities alongside those political activists who remained faithful to the tenets and imagination of the liberation movement.