On April 27, 1994, voters waited for hours in lines stretching more than a kilometre to cast their ballot in South Africa's first democratic elections. (Archives/Media24)
Tunes Elof I will be reflecting on my time as steering the multi-party negotiation process to glean information that may be useful to political parties after the 2024 elections, including lessons learned and processes adopted prior to the 1994 elections.
Thirty years on, it is worth reflecting on how our democracy was founded and what lessons can be learned from the process before 1994. Some of these lessons may be relevant for the post-2024 electoral period and any coalition governments that may be formed..
Codesa (South African Democratic Congress) lasted only seven months before reaching a stalemate in June 1992. The reasons for its failure were manifold: there were substantive issues on which the parties could not agree at that stage, such as the nature of the transition of power, the percentage required for future constitutional reform, the form of the state, and the protection of minorities, and the parties did not yet trust each other sufficiently.
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