SOUTH-AFRICA - END OF APARTHEID AND AFTER

The South African elections of April this year were a world-historic event. The black majority's conquest of citizenship denied them under white rule represented far more than simply the elimination of the last vestiges of formal colonial domination in Africa. It was the culmination of a struggle which the oppressed majority had waged in order to win acceptance of their claim to be recognised as human beings, of equal value to and with the same rights as their oppressors. What made this miracle possible? More specifically, what caused the head of the apartheid regime, F W de Klerk, to make the momentous decision in February 1990 to unban the ANC and free Nelson Mandela? How had the tortuous negotiations which ensued between the government and the ANC succeeded in achieving the constitutional settlement under which the elections were held? And what will the ANC, victorious at the polls, make of its triumph-in particular, to begin to transform the lives of the black majority? These are the questions addressed in this article.