South Africa

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Majority Rule in South Africa

Although all apartheid legislation was repealed, South Africa remained a country of extreme contradictions. Mandela’s government faced the challenge of restructuring the economy and redistributing economic benefits, providing housing and health care, and improving employment possibilities and educational opportunities.

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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Another challenge Mandela’s government faced was how to handle the widespread allegations of human-rights violations and other atrocities committed by the former government during apartheid. In a move toward uncovering past events without further polarizing the society, the government created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

On April 15, 1996, this 17-member commission began conducting hearings, presided by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The purpose of the commission was to collect and investigate victims’ accounts from the period of 1960 through 1994, to consider amnesty for those who confess their participation in atrocities, and to make recommendations for reparations. The commission was established in the hope that it would foster healing and prevent such crimes from happening again.

Many people in South Africa, however, wanted punishment for those responsible for the crimes, and the commission’s compromises involving amnesty and confession were a source of controversy. Exposures of atrocities pointed to the highest levels of the apartheid regime. A former chief of the South African police force admitted that he had ordered acts of terror with the knowledge and approval of then President P. W. Botha and the cabinet. Activities of the ANC as well as the apartheid regime came under the scrutiny of the commission. In 1998 the commission released its final report, which condemned actions of all the major political organizations during the apartheid period.

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New South African Constitution

The South African parliament approved a new constitution in May 1996. The right-wing Freedom Front abstained from the vote in parliament. The representatives of the IFP did not participate in the session at all. IFP representatives refused to participate mainly because the party advocates more autonomy for the provinces than the ANC is willing to allow. The new constitution excludes any discrimination based on race, gender, age, or sexual orientation, and abolishes the death penalty.

One day after adoption of the new constitution the NP decided to split from the coalition government. The NP contended that the new constitution did not provide shared power at the executive level or any form of joint decision-making. The NP also hoped that by leaving the government it would be able to establish itself as a viable opposition party.

In September 1996 the Constitutional Court declined to certify the new constitution because it failed to meet the terms of the interim constitution regarding the role of provincial government. The court ruled that the new constitution gave the nine provinces substantially fewer powers than the interim constitution required. By the end of the year, members of the Constitutional Assembly redrafted the constitution to meet the court’s requirements, and the final version was approved by parliament in December. The new constitution was implemented in stages between 1997 and 2000.

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Recent Developments

In late 1997 President Mandela retired as party leader of the ANC and was replaced by executive deputy president Thabo Mbeki. Mandela, who announced in 1996 that he would not seek another term as president, groomed Mbeki to succeed him. In June 1999 legislative elections the ANC won two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly and selected Mbeki as South Africa’s president.

In the early 21st century South Africa grappled with high unemployment, poverty, and a growing AIDS epidemic. Under Mbeki, the government extended the country’s infrastructure, bringing electricity and water to millions of South Africans, and built thousands of new houses for the poor. The government has pledged to provide those same basic necessities to the millions of South Africans who have not yet received them. In April 2004 parliamentary elections the ANC won almost 70 percent of the seats in the National Assembly, which reelected Mbeki as president.

In 2006 South Africa became the first country in Africa, and the fifth in the world, to legalize same-sex marriage. The Constitutional Court had ruled in December 2005 that the country’s Marriage Act was unconstitutional because it did not include same-sex unions in the legal definition of marriage. The South African constitution’s bill of rights prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. The court gave the South African parliament a year to amend the country’s marriage laws. The Civil Union Act, which went into effect at the end of November 2006, officially guarantees that married same-sex couples have all of the legal rights associated with marriage.

The History section of this article was contributed by N. Brian Winchester and Patrick O’Meara. The remainder of the article was contributed by Anthony Lemon.

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