South Africa's election ratifies a political miracle for the ages
by Jerelyn Eddings, Eric Ransdell
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Freedom finally arrived in South Africa at 7 a.m. on April 26. At Sefikeng Church in the black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg, the old women arrived a few minutes earlier, just before the polls opened for the first multiracial elections in the nation's history. They came with their heads wrapped in traditional style and with checkered wool blankets covering their shoulders, moving slowly, some with the aid of walking sticks. In deference to their ages and their years of suffering, first under white domination and then, since 1948, under the racist policy of apartheid, an election monitor ushered them carefully to the front of the already long line. Four decades ago, they had watched as their homes in Johannesburg's vibrant, multiracial community of Sophiatown were bulldozed. Then they were herded onto Army trucks, which carried them to the stark little houses in this part of Soweto known as Meadowlands. Their old neighborhood gave way to a new working-class white suburb named Triomf, which means triumph in Afrikaans, the language of their oppressors.
Last week, however, triumph belonged to apartheid's victims, to the disenfranchised and the dispossessed who lost their homes, their loved ones and their friends to a system that measured a person's worth by the color of his skin and the curl of his hair. They came by the millions to cast their votes for a new South Africa, lining up for hours in queues that stretched for miles through busy cities on the rich gold reef, through quaint towns in the farming heartland and through dusty villages in the poor homelands once assigned to blacks. "I didn't think I would ever see this day," said Hanna Kotana, 75, who leaned on a cane and squinted through thick, dark-rimmed spectacles. "I feel happy and energetic. I think I could throw this cane away. The way I feel I have no words to say."
Starting over. In many ways, the spectacle is a political and human "miracle." As other nations in Europe, Africa and elsewhere are torn limb from limb by old grievances, new greed and ethnic hatred, the most deeply and bitterly divided country in the world, a nation long ruled by racist laws and consumed throughout its history by racial, tribal and ethnic hostilities, is poised to bind its wounds and start over. Four years of difficult, multiparty negotiations have produced one of history's great moments, one that rivals and perhaps even eclipses the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Communism, tired, corrupt and bankrupt, imploded with a whimper. South Africa's transition from tyranny to democracy is an act of enormous courage and monumental statesmanship, both by those who are gaining power and by those who are giving it up. State President F.W. de Klerk has done what Mikhail Gorbachev lacked both the vision and the courage to do -- willingly dismantle the monopoly on power held at gunpoint by his privileged elite. And in Nelson Mandela, the "old man" of the African National Congress, South Africa and the world have found a leader who possessed both the steel to win the long war against apartheid and the grace to face the future without bitterness or recrimination.
The fear of chaos that had prompted some whites to stock up on supplies and ammunition before Election Day dissolved in the warm glow of reconciliation during and after the four days of voting. Said Mandela: "I think every one of us will agree that the people of South Africa have been victorious. They have won."
Flag of hope. A spate of right-wing bombings early in the week, which most South Africans hope were the death rattle of white extremism, failed to derail, or even overshadow, the elections. As the voting got underway, a new flag was hoisted, a new interim Constitution took effect and a new national anthem, "God Bless Africa," was raised. Blacks and whites lined up together, patiently sharing soft drinks as hundreds of polling stations around the country ran out of ballot papers. Wealthy white matrons and their black maids, equals for the first time in their lives, embraced in the queues. Whites brought water to blacks who came to voting stations in their tree-lined neighborhoods. Black squatter-camp residents warmly greeted whites who came to vote under tents in their desolate settlements. In parts of the country, conservative whites and left-leaning blacks stood side by side all day, as did political rivals from Mandela's African National Congress and Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party.
The balloting was not without its problems: Millions of ballots were inexplicably lost, leading to accusations of theft and vote rigging. A rush to print 9.3 million new ballots averted a threatened pullout by Buthelezi, the combative Zulu leader and Inkatha president who entered the election at the last minute and hinted that he might yet reject the results.
But such problems were addressed quickly, and the balloting went off smoothly enough that the election is bound to be pronounced free and fair by South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission. Though final results were not expected until early this week, the ANC vote should be sufficient to ensure that Mandela is sworn in May 10 as the country's first black president. De Klerk's National Party is expected to be the second biggest vote getter, which would give him a place in the government of national unity that will govern South Africa for the next five years.
Beyond the euphoria awaits the tough job of putting South Africa right and building it into a strong, unified nation. In addition to the obvious economic and social challenges arising from apartheid, the new government faces threats from the neo-Nazi fringe responsible for last week's bombings and from Buthelezi, whose followers have fought a bitter war with the ANC since 1984.
The white-extremist threat, however, has diminished substantially following a split in right-wing ranks in March, when the most credible military leader chose to contest the election rather than hold out for a white volkstaat, or homeland. If retired Gen. Constand Viljoen draws substantial support from conservative whites for his Freedom Front party, the radical holdouts will be further marginalized and less capable of sustaining their threatened campaign of terror and sabotage against the new black-led government. "The most sophisticated element of the right wing from a military point of view left with General Viljoen," says Gen. Gert Opperman of the South African National Defense Force. "Had they still been part of the fringe, we would have had more to worry about."
Strong message. Bombings, such as the blasts early last week that left 21 dead and more than 100 wounded, could continue. Yet analysts say the outrage the bombings provoked from the country's whites, coupled with condemnations from Viljoen and other leading right-wingers, has sent a clear message to extremists who had hoped to galvanize support for their dream of seizing a white volkstaat.
Buthelezi could be a bigger problem. Throughout last week he wavered between pulling out of the elections and promising to abide by their results. With 5,000 men trained at military camps in his northern Natal stronghold, the violence that all but disappeared during last week's polls could explode again if he rejects the results.
Sources close to the Inkatha leader say Buthelezi expects to win in Natal and to make a strong showing nationally despite his late entry into the elections. Analysts in Natal, however, expect the race to be close, and many think the ANC has an advantage because its candidates campaigned for months while Inkatha wavered.
Indeed, many problems Buthelezi has complained about can be attributed to the Zulu leader's last-minute change of heart. In many Inkatha areas, voter education did not begin until the weekend before the elections. In remote rural areas of northern Natal, people who r
