Introduction
The fight for equality and the rights of Blacks against apartheid in South Africa was a uniquely enduring experience, which observed almost 50 years of racial discrimination and oppression imposed by a minority white population. It would be wise to begin with the date of 1989. In that year, De Klerk became the new president of the SA, the leader of the white minority and National Party. And due to immense internal and external pressures, he was forced to make some radical changes to end apartheid. On February 2, 1990, he lifted the bans on political parties and organizations that had been shut down for opposing to apartheid. This freed the ANC, PAC, and Communist Party, and allowed Blacks living abroad to return to the country. The release of Black leader Nelson Mandela on February 11, 1990, after 27 years in prison, marked a new era in SA history. The secret talks of reconciliation with Mandela, which started during his years in prison became the first item on the Country Agenda, discussed publicly between the ANC and the National Party.
On the other hand, despite the repeal of the laws governing the apartheid system, violent clashes continued between Blacks and government forces during this period of radical change and negotiations. The government's inability to prevent the ongoing violence, and leaked info about the police provoking and supplying weapons to IFP militants for attacking the ANC weakened the National Party's position against the ANC. As these developments unfolded, at the ANC National Conference held in SA in July 1991, the first in 30 years, Mandela was elected as President and C. Ramaphosa as the Secretary General.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that the ANC, which had long years of armed fighting experience, faced the challenge of disarming itself and transforming its organization into a legal "political party".
However, reconciling the differing expectations of the parties prior to the negotiations constituted the basic challenge of the process. Firstly, the white minority government, believing a democratic election would leave whites in a minority against a Black majority, were in favor of a system in which whites would also participate in governance. And also the securing the whites' properties and assets and the maintenance of the free market system were critical to whites.
On the other hand, Mandela, rejected the National Party’s expected dominant role to govern all processes, in other words, acting as both a referee and a player. Briefly, Mandela offered an elected, interim government to conduct the process. De Klerk opposed the idea of an interim government by claiming that it lacked a constitutional basis and had a legitimacy problem.
But the ANC was determined to secure its position and insisted on an elected constituent assembly, formed by universal suffrage with proportional representation, and to oversee drafting the interim constitution.
And, the ANC acted in line with their position and set up a coalition of opposing groups by bringing together the Communist Party and the Union of Trade Unions. This coalition launched a broad campaign on March 1991 to garner the support of broad segments of society outside the party organizations.
Mandela's call at the beginning of the year for multilateral talks involving other political organizations was welcomed by the government and other political organizations, but they waited until September for a concrete outcome.
The significant outcome of this initiative was the consensus document signed by 27 political organizations on September 14, 1991 at a meeting. Also, working groups were formed under this consensus to deal with regional and local bodies in order to prevent violence. But, since these efforts focused solely on violence and did not work on a new constitution, this was not effective on a societal level. However, organizing effective communication channels and the efforts carried out to bring many organizations together helped a broadly attended congress convene.
The first democratic congress of South Africa
Following the call of Mandela, who believed the political climate had matured enough, the first Democratic Congress of South Africa convened on December 20, 1991. This congress was marked as the first that brought together the leading political organizations of SA, ANC and nearly 20 Black organizations opposing the white government.
Beside the SA government and the National Party and the ANC, the IFP (Inkhata Freedom Party), the Democratic Party, the SA Communist Party, the SA Indian Congress, the Colored Workers' Party, the Indian National Congress Party, the Solidarity Party, leaders of some indigenous tribes, and the right-wing white conservative party were among the participants. The UN, the Commonwealth of Nations, the European Union, and the Organization of African Unity representatives attended as observers.
Certain principles, previously agreed on for the reconciliation process through lengthy negotiations between the ANC and the National Party, met with serious skepticism by other key players, particularly by the PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) and the IFP (Inkhata Freedom Party). Since these two leading Black political organizations fearing they would be excluded from the process, they decided to boycott the Congress.
In his opening speech, Mandela stated that this Congress had reached a point of no return in South Africa and that the Congress's specific mission was to pave the way for a constituent assembly which will prepare the interim constitution and then called on the government to start work and lead the preparations for an interim government of national unity.
Five working groups were formed at the Congress, and decided that these groups would work on the addressed issues until the next Congress to be held in May, 1992.
But the final speeches of the Congress witnessed harsh accusations from both sides. De Klerk, in his final speech, unexpectedly spoke in a rebuking tone, accused the ANC of breaking promises, such as establishing a militia army and violating the National Peace Accord. Mandela, in his reply, described De Klerk as an illegitimate, discredited minority leader. He stated that the peace initiatives were launched by the ANC, and it was the government who broke its promises, as the ANC suspended the armed fighting, but the government had secretly financed armed attacks against the ANC. At the end of his speech, he softened his tone somewhat, adding that despite all his faults, he was ready to work with him.
Six weeks after the Congress, following the National Party's significant defeat in the local elections held in Potchefstroom, a referendum initiated by De Klerk among white voters on March 17, 1992, resulted in 69% support for the ongoing negotiations with Blacks.
Before the Second Congress, the ANC and National Party negotiators, the primary actors in the process, met now and then and Mandela and De Klerk met for a final meeting the day before the Congress. Meanwhile, leaked reports of significant corruption within the National Government and covert operations against the ANC by the security forces and military intelligence weakened De Klerk's position.
While there was a certain degree of reconciliation between the ANC and the National Party before the Congress, it was clear that their main differences were waiting to be solved.
Second congress of Democratic South Africa
The Congress, which began on May 15, 1992, had to be adjourned on the first day after it became clear that would be no consensus due to the parties' failure to reach prior agreement on primary issues. To resolve the dispute, Mandela and De Klerk met on the same evening and agreed to continue the Congress with a more constructive approach.
In the following day session, De Klerk raised his concern about the risk of whites’ losing political power if an assembly would be set up with elections held on majority principles, as whites constitutes the minority of population. So he expressed his desire to seek some safeguards against the potential abuse of majority Black power, including "minority veto, etc." However, all his arguments and the previous proposals were not welcomed by the ANC and considered incompatible with ANC's inspirations fought for many years. So, at end of discussions, they agreed on a parliament to be set up by majoritarian principles and thus, De Klerk's concerns remained unresolved.
The Congress thus ended in disagreement, but ANC and the government agreed to continue bilateral talks and the search for a common ground. In response to the Congress's failure, US President Bush's offer to help for a compromise was rejected by both sides. In his speech to the UN Security Council on July 15, Mandela denounced De Klerk and his government and called on the Council to end the ongoing violence.
Meanwhile, the ANC and the Black’s unions, along with their collaborating organizations, launched mass demonstrations that made a significant impact on the country in order to exert political pressure on the government. The strikes, mass demonstrations, and boycotts that began on June 16, 1992, on the anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising, ended with a two-day national strike on August 3-4.
Beside the social unrest, continued violence and massacres were constituting a serious threat to the process and tension mounted between the ANC and the National Government, which paralyzed the parties in their efforts to come together.
On the night of June 17, 1992, a group of Inkhata militants attacked Boipatong, killed 46 people, most of them women and children. And the police's inaction sparked another wave of anger among Blacks. Bilateral communication within the government was terminated. The ANC took to the streets again and launched mass demonstrations. However, during these demonstrations on September 7, 1992, another massacre ensued. 29 people were killed by soldiers in Ciskei during a protest march against the government attended by 70,000 people. All these massacres, mass demonstrations and strikes caused a deep unrest in society and social order.
While the quest of the masses to calm down and live in peace was voiced by several institutions there were mutual accusations and challenges between De Klerk and Mandela. All of these developments caused a serious anger within ANC circles and some called for a return to armed struggle.
On the other hand, pressure from the international community and ongoing violence, coupled with negative conditions affecting the entire country such as economic embargoes and the flight of capital abroad, were forcing both the National Party and the ANC to reach a compromise. And, since the ongoing difficulties warned of the urgency for a political solution, both sides agreed to come together and voice their consent to continue the negotiations.
Return to negotiations
On September 26, 1992, Mandela met with De Klerk and reached an agreement that paved the way for a solution. The Memorandum of Understanding between the parties outlined the principles that would form the basis of further negotiations: the government and the ANC agreed to form an elected assembly to draft the interim constitution, and that this assembly would also serve as the legislative body of the new government. The election date for the constitutional assembly and the majority required for its decisions were left to the negotiation process.
In October, a proposal to establish a national unity government was adopted within the ANC, as part of the peace process and to serve on a power-sharing basis for a specific term. In December 1992, the ANC resumed secret talks with the government and reached an agreement to form a five-year National Unity government. Also, in upcoming elections, all parties receiving over 5% of the vote would participate in government on proportional principle. This agreement was announced in February 1993, and elections were scheduled to be held as early as the end of 1993.
Multilateral negotiating forum
The Congress, known as the Multilateral Negotiating Forum, convened on April 1, 1993, and the number of organizations represented increased to 26, with the participation of the leading political parties, some white political parties, and local and traditional leaders who had not previously participated.
At the forum, the government and the ANC came up with issues they had previously agreed on and urged other parties to follow this agenda. The Inkatha Freedom Party, by considering this initiative made to keep them out of the process, left the forum.
But, in these days, the murder of Chris Hani, a close friend of Mandela on April 10, 1993, by a white racist, brought the country back to the brink of chaos. The riots resulted in 70 deaths, many shops were looted, and businesses were boycotted. As De Klerk and security forces were not able to cope with these chaos, Mandela appealed to Black people in a television address and asked them to calm down and control their anger by underlining the need for peace to reach a stable social order.
Meanwhile, ongoing violence made it impossible to continue the regular negotiations and reconciliation process that was once again interrupted in June 1993, because of the white racist Afrikaner organization's armored vehicle attack on the World Trade Center.
On the other hand, the Congress, under the pressure of the ongoing violence, and owing to the urgency to reach a solution, led the parties to continue working through the established committees. In October, based on the recommendations developed by the committees, the ANC and the National Party reached agreements on such issues as, interim constitution, a national unity government, vice-presidents, and cabinet memberships. Mandela and De Klerk met in November and reached an agreement. The National Party had to give up their claim for veto power over decisions within the government.
The interim constitution, adopted by Congress on November 18, 1993, was ratified by Parliament on December 22, 1993. The process leading to the expected democratic elections then began.
However, violence went on, in particular militants from the Inkhata Freedom Party dissatisfied with the agreement, decided not to participate in the elections, and continued their attacks. On March 28, 53 people were killed at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg.
Elections were held on April 27, 1994. In the first elections in South African history where a Black majority voted, the ANC won with 62% of the vote. A National Unity Government was formed with the National Party, which received 20% of the vote. Mandela became President, De Klerk and Thabo Mbeki were his deputies. The transitional process continued with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established within the framework of the 1995 constitution and its provisions. The 1990-1994 period and the negotiations that continued also saw the most violence and deaths, with 14,300 people reportedly killed between 1990 and 1994. It is also noted that a significant portion of those killed were the result of conflicts between Blacks, such as among militants of the Inkhata Freedom Party and the ANC.
References:
- Nelson Mandela, Autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Little, Brown & Company, New York, 1995
- David Welsh, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg & Cape Town, 2009
- Oxford University Press, Understanding Apartheid, South Africa, 2006.
(NT/MH)
