The international economic punitive actions against South Africa were repealed in great haste after the Government of National Unity took power in April 1994, and South Africa took its rightful place again in international forums such as the United Nations, the Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF and World Bank), the Organisation of African Unity, and the British Commonwealth of Nations.
South Africa became reintegrated into a world financial system that was vastly different from the one it had left in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The explosive developments during its absence in electronics and in communications, and the revolutionary trans-formation from mainly manufacturing/trading economies to a new service/information based culture, led to a strong movement of globalisation in financial market activity.