National Congress were able to convince the
white leadership that they sought not revenge for
the decades of oppression they had suffered but
a new start heralded by compromise and recon-
ciliation. That alone made the transfer of power
possible. Twenty-eight million black Africans
were enfranchised, and in April 1994 waited
patiently in long lines to vote in the first non-
racially divided elections. The ANC emerged as
victors, with 62.6 per cent of the national vote,
and Mandela was installed as president of South
Africa. The worst outbreaks of violence had been
not between white and black Africans but
between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party
led by the Zulu Chief Buthelezi. For years the
apartheid governments had encouraged this split
and promoted violence and murder. The hatreds
persisted and the conflict claimed more than
10,000 lives. But with de Klerk as deputy,
Mandela began the dificult task of charting South
Africa’s future. In May 1996 the National Party
withdrew from the coalition with the ANC after
a new democratic constitution was passed by par-
liament. Apartheid was abolished but in other
respects the changes did not bring immediate
benefits to the African people. The ANC’s
Reconstruction and Development Programme,
with its huge spending plans for housing, educa-
tion and agriculture only made slow progress,
although free primary health care was introduced
and the economy is expanding slowly, especially
since socialist planning was abandoned. The dis-
appointment experienced by large sections of the
urban poor has produced high crime rates.
Apartheid has been dismantled but its legacy con-
tinues: economic power remained overwhelm-
ingly in white hands. The small proportion of
highly educated blacks have benefitted, but for
the great majority of the 46 million South
Africans life remains as hard as ever. Mandela
lived up to his promise to prevent a backlash
against white South Africans. The Truth and
Reconciliation Commission – perhaps the most
remarkable institution to be set up in the course
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Johannesburg, South Africa. There are no anatomical differences, but the laws of apartheid do not allow white
and black people to use the same toilets. © Ian Berry/Magnum Photos
