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Unlock This CourseThe election date was fixed, but in early 1994 several groups still refused to take part. Inkatha, the Conservative Party and the rulers of the Bophuthatswana and Ciskei homelands had joined together as the Freedom Alliance. Each feared losing power under an ANC government. Three crises followed.
Even then, bombs planted by white right-wingers killed 21 people in the days around the vote.
Key terms:
The ANC's slogan was 'A better life for all'. Its RDP promised a million new homes in five years, as well as jobs, electricity and clean water. Mandela also worked hard to calm white, Coloured and Indian voters. He said there would be no revenge and that South Africa belonged to everyone.
De Klerk presented the National Party as a new party that had ended apartheid. It was now open to all races and aimed for Coloured and Indian votes. It warned that the ANC had no experience of governing and was too close to the Communist Party.
On 14 April Mandela and de Klerk argued fiercely in a television debate. At the end Mandela reached over and took de Klerk's hand, saying they would go forward together.
General voting took place on 27 and 28 April. The elderly and the sick voted the day before, and voting ran on to 29 April in some areas. There was no list of voters, so people simply showed an identity document. Their hands were marked with ink so that nobody could vote twice. Nineteen parties stood, and the ballot paper showed each party's symbol and a photograph of its leader to help people who could not read.
Queues stretched for more than a kilometre in places, and people of every race waited together for hours. Some polling stations ran out of ballot papers, yet the voting days were remarkably peaceful. Mandela, aged 75, voted for the first time in his life at Ohlange High School near Durban. The school was founded by John Dube, the ANC's first president, who is buried there. Nearly 20 million people voted.
The 400 seats in the National Assembly were shared out by proportional representation. Counting was slow and there were disputes, but the IEC declared the election 'substantially free and fair'.
62.65 per cent of the vote and 252 seats. It won seven of the nine new provinces.
About 20 per cent and 82 seats. It won the Western Cape, helped by Coloured voters.
About 10 per cent and 43 seats. It won KwaZulu-Natal.
The details mattered. The ANC fell just short of the two-thirds majority that would have let it write the final constitution alone, so it would have to agree it with others. Under the rules for the Government of National Unity, the National Party and Inkatha had also won enough seats to sit in the cabinet. Every main group therefore had a share in the new South Africa, and every main leader accepted the result. On 2 May de Klerk admitted defeat with good grace.
On 9 May the new National Assembly elected Mandela as president. The next day, 10 May 1994, he was sworn in at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, once the centre of white power, in front of leaders from around the world. He promised: 'Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.'
Thabo Mbeki of the ANC and de Klerk became deputy presidents, and Buthelezi became Minister of Home Affairs. A new flag flew, and both the African hymn 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika' and the old Afrikaans anthem were sung. Within weeks the UN lifted its arms embargo and South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth.
In 1948 an election in which almost all the voters were white brought apartheid. In 1994 every adult had one vote of equal value. White minority rule was over, the homelands were abolished, and the man jailed for life in 1964 was head of state. Power had changed hands through talks and a vote, not the civil war many had expected. One thing had not changed: the poverty and the gaps in land, housing and schools left by apartheid. The vote was won, but 'a better life for all' still had to be built.
Don't say the election went smoothly. Homeland crises, Inkatha's boycott and right-wing bombs nearly wrecked it. Don't say the ANC then ruled alone. It led a Government of National Unity with its old enemies. And don't write as if the vote ended inequality. It ended white political rule.
'The main reason why South Africa was able to hold a multiracial election in April 1994 was the leadership of Nelson Mandela.'
How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
You must also use information of your own.
Mandela's leadership was vital, but I only partly agree that it was the main reason. The election needed a government willing to give up power and rivals willing to take part, as well as Mandela.
Mandela mattered because he alone could keep the black majority behind a peaceful settlement. After the Boipatong massacre in 1992 he broke off the talks, which showed supporters he was not weak, yet he returned to sign the Record of Understanding. When Chris Hani was murdered in April 1993 many feared a race war. Mandela's television appeal calmed the country, and an election date was set within weeks. In the 1994 campaign he promised whites there would be no revenge and took de Klerk's hand in their television debate.
However, no election was possible until de Klerk acted. In February 1990 he unbanned the ANC and freed Mandela, and in 1991 the main apartheid laws were repealed. He won about 69 per cent in the white referendum of 1992, which defeated the right wing, and in the end he gave up the white veto. He controlled the army and police, so only he could hand over power legally. Without his reforms Mandela would still have been a prisoner.
Other people also made the election possible. Ramaphosa and Roelf Meyer kept the talks alive when the leaders were not speaking and settled much of the interim constitution. In 1994 the election was only safe once General Viljoen led the Freedom Front into the vote in March and Buthelezi agreed to take part on 19 April. If Inkatha had stayed out, the vote in Natal could have ended in bloodshed.
Overall, I judge the reasons by asking who could least have been replaced. De Klerk's reforms were the necessary first step, but he was pushed into them by sanctions and unrest, and another white leader would have faced the same pressure. Nobody else had Mandela's standing to hold back angry supporters and calm white fears together. So his leadership was the most important single reason, but it only worked because de Klerk, the negotiators and, at the last moment, Buthelezi and Viljoen each played their part.
What lifts this to the top level: it covers three aspects (one not in the bullets), argues both for and against the statement with precise facts, and reaches a judgement using a stated test.
An answer that uses only the two bullets cannot reach the top level, so plan your own third point before you write. Here it is the other people who made the election possible. Then name the test you are using in your conclusion, such as 'who could least have been replaced'. For more help, see the Exam Skills lesson Paper 1 Question (c): The 16-Mark How Far Do You Agree Essay.