MANDELA:
An Audio History
Part 5 — DEMOCRACY (1990-1994)
NPR HOST: Today, the final chapter of our series, marking the tenth anniversary of South Africa's first truly democratic elections.
Nelson Mandela was sent to prison in 1964. When he emerged 27 years later, Mandela faced his former captors, the white South African government, as a political opponent rather than an outlaw.
Many hoped his release would signal a quick end to the struggle for liberation. But the next four years would be among the bloodiest and most painful for all South Africans — black and white — as they struggled toward the transition to majority rule.
Here again is Mandela: An Audio History from producers Joe Richman and Sue Johnson.
NEWSCAST: For the first time in 78 years, the African National Congress is talking to the white minority government. Its leader, Nelson Mandela, publicly welcomed by the President who freed him less than three months ago.
NELSON MANDELA (ARCHIVAL SPEECH): We are here as fellow South Africans convinced that the system of white minority rule must come to an end without delay.
PIK BOTHA: From the early sixties, in the minds of most of the whites of this country, Mandela was simply regarded as a terrorist. And now I must sit with his men around a table.
NELSON MANDELA: To start negotiations with a government, which had throughout the years repeated that they would never sit down and talk to a terrorist organization, was a highly sensitive matter.
PIK BOTHA: When we started negotiations, Mr. Mandela, his very first opening statement, for at least 20 minutes or more, he made a study of the Afrikaner history, merely telling us, "Look, I know you and I respect what you've gone through." He didn't come up with a statement of bitterness, retribution. No. A man, after 27 years of being robbed of his freedom, and to then come forward and start negotiations on that basis — remarkable. There's no way you can argue against that.
ALLISTER SPARKS: It was the work he'd done in this harsh prison of making it his business to get into the heart and mind of his adversary. And that's the key to everything. You've got to understand your adversary.
NEWSCAST: After three days of historic discussions, first President de Klerk and then Mr.Mandela appeared to face the press together. Their handshake, evidence of the progress made.
ALBIE SACHS: It didn't come easily. We had breakdowns, we had setbacks, people would storm out of meetings. But things seemed to be going well until fairly early in 1992, we had total breakdown.
NEWSCAST: Good evening. Prospects for peace are fading. At least 31 people have died since violence erupted in Soweto yesterday.
NEWSCAST: The powerful image of violence in South Africa is no longer a confrontation between black and white, but between black and black.
(PROTEST SOUNDS)
NEWSCAST: The more conservative Zulus, lead by Chief Buthelezi, challenged Mandela's right to speak for all blacks. Blacks are killing blacks in a steadily worsening tribal war.(PROTEST SOUNDS)
NEWSCAST: Cars and houses torched, an alleged Inkatha supporter necklaced with a burning tire. A policeman sobbed outside his blazing home, set alight by neighbors who accused the police of involvement in the massacre.(PROTEST SOUNDS END)
AHMED KATHRADA: There was widespread violence. Many, many people were killed.
ALLISTER SPARKS: The military security forces and the police were engaged in this. They were providing weapons, they organized raids, they constituted what Mandela called a 'Third Force.'
NEWSCAST: Nelson Mandela accused the government of complicity in the killings. The large rally cheered as Mr. Mandela announced that he'd suspended talks with the government.
NELSON MANDELA SPEECH (ARCHIVAL): The negotiation process is completely in tatters. I can no longer explain to our people why we continue to talk to a government, which is murdering our people.
(PROTEST SHOUTS)
NEWSCAST: That war between the Zulu tribe and left-wing blacks has become a lot deadlier in recent days, and that is bound to make whites in this country even more anxious. Widespread violence to go with their now uncertain political and economic future.
DR NTHATO MOTLANA: The reaction of white South Africans was, as usual, divided.
NEWSCAST: Many left-wing whites would now join Nelson Mandela's ANC, but most are in an expanding center—the majority who accept change but are worried.
(SONGS AND PROTEST)
ROELF MEYER: Whites simply were afraid of, you know, giving up the power that they had, that they had exercised for more than 300 years. And they could see this slipping out of their hands. And some right-wingers tried to do something to derail the process.(CAMERA SOUNDS)
POLICE STATEMENT: At approximately 10:25 this morning, Mr. Hani drove up to his house, got out, and at the same moment another car (we believe a Ford Laser) stopped behind Mr. Hani. Shots were fired, by a white man, at close range.
ALBIE SACHS: Chris Hani was the head of Umkonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. Immensely popular person. He would draw the biggest crowd of any leader in the country, Mandela included.
POLICE STATEMENT: I am unfortunate [sic] to announce that Mr. Hani has been killed instantly.
ALBIE SACHS: When he was shot down after he had been out jogging, there was an extraordinary eruption of anger in the country. That was a most terrible moment.
NEWSCASTER: There have been numerous incidents of rioting and other violence, and to report on the situation in Durban, we have Dirk de Pienaar reporting from a portable phone.
REPORTER: In Durban, I am in the city center and there is a riot. Police have now cocked their rifles. There is chaos in the center of Durban right now. Hundreds of policemen are coming out. They've got bullet-proof vests on... uh, an ANC...
(LINE GOES DEAD)
NEWSCASTER: Hello, Dirk?
AHMED KATHRADA: President de Klerk and the government realized that they were now powerless to control the situation. And that very night, Mandela went on television to appeal to the country for calm.
NELSON MANDELA (ARCHIVAL SPEECH): We say to all South Africans, black and white: This killing must stop. Our pain and anger is real, yet we must not permit ourselves to be provoked by those who seek to deny us the very freedom Chris Hani gave his life for.
AHMED KATHRADA: It was his intervention on television that kept the country calm. That night, effectively, Mandela became president of the country.
NEWSCAST: On the final day of campaigning on South Africa's non-racial election, a huge explosion has caused death and injury near the Johannesburg offices of the African National Congress.
NEWSCAST 2: No one has claimed responsibility, but it's assumed to be the work of the far right, which has threatened to disrupt the election. The effects of this kind of action may well be to deter people from voting.
ALLISTER SPARKS: It was a very explosive situation right in the final days of the transition. I mean, nothing in South Africa has ever been dull. We went to the brink several times, but there was no way of going backwards.
(NEWS STATION ID MUSIC)
NEWSCAST: It's seven o'clock on the morning of the 27th of April, 1994. Polling stations have opened, thousands of people queue up to cast their vote at ballot stations. And we see that Mr. Mandela is busy casting his vote at this moment.(SINGING)
CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT: Vote ANC for peace in our land. Now is the time. Vote Mandela for President! Vote ANC!
NEWSCAST: In many black and colored areas, queues began forming at four o'clock this morning, as first-time voters streamed to the polls. Thousands of people were already queuing before seven o'clock outside polling stations near Pretoria and at Soweto. The Red Cross said people should wear a hat, take a bottle of water and some boiled sweets in case of long delays.
(CHEERING AND SINGING)
DESMOND TUTU: It was a crazy day. To think that I had to wait until I was 62 years of age, Nelson Mandela was 76 years of age, before we voted in the land of our birth!
NEWSCAST: A man of 101 years old voted for the first time at Addo in the Eastern Cape last night. Although unable to say much, the man appeared jubilant.
JOE MATTHEWS: It just was overwhelming to see all these people in long queus, who couldn't even complete their voting in the one day. It had to continue the next day. And were prepared to stand there in the sun and rain and to travel miles to go and put an "X" against a name. And I wondered to myself, "What is it... about casting a vote?"
NELSON MANDELA, INAUGURAL SPEECH: I, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, do hereby swear to be faithful to the republic of South Africa.
DESMOND TUTU: Huge crowds! The day when Nelson Mandela was duly inaugurated the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
NELSON MANDELA, INAUGURAL SPEECH: ...and to devote myself to the well-being of the Republic and all its people.
INAUGURAL OFFICIAL: Will you please raise your right hand and say, "So help me God."
NELSON MANDELA: So help me God.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
DESMOND TUTU: And you sat there, and you looked at the benches of the newly elected legislators, and there were all these terrorists — as they had been regarded by the former apartheid government. And there they were sitting. (Laughs) Many had been on Robben Island, in exile, many had been tortured. Many of us kept having to pinch ourselves to say, "No, man, I am dreaming."(INAUGURAL MUSIC AND JETS FLYING OVERHEAD)
AHMED KATHRADA:On that day, everyone who was at the inauguration will admit that the most exciting thing of that day was when the jets, just at the right time, they flew over that crowd. I think it was just the idea of people suddenly realizing en masse that those are now ours. They don't belong to the white apartheid regime any more. They belong to us, to all the people. We are the government now.(ENDING SONG)
Produced by
Joe Richman/Radio Diaries
and Sue Johnson
Copyright Radio Diaries, 2004
All Things Considered (NPR) Broadcast 4/30/2004
You can find biographical information about the people in this story here.
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