Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 29, 1994 TAG: 9404290121
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Abnormally high, indeed. This is the first time in history that the vast majority of South Africans, who are black, have been allowed to vote in national elections. In South Africa, white minority rule has been normal. Apar-theid was normal. Oppression was normal. Democracy is abnormal.
The event reverberates worldwide. The vote marks the demise of the world's last racial oligarchy - in some respects, the end of a 500-year period of global colonialism. After so much suffering and struggle, the birth of political equality in South Africa is a great moment in history.
History, thus, should be the context in which the elections are viewed. They were a long time coming, and not easily won. It should surprise no one if some of the benefits from the forms of democracy take time to show up in the substance of South Africans' lives. Nor will anyone be surprised if the violence that marred the weeks before the elections does not disappear in the aftermath.
Like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa emerged violently in a crucible of racism and greed, tribalism and exploitation. This week's voting puts the country on a democratic path, but doesn't end old fears or hatreds or the traumatizing influences of historical, institutional evil. Patience is a precious commodity among people who've been deprived and degraded for generations. Inflated expectations are dangerous.
In this enlightened century, it took many years of struggle, and the sustained pressure of the international community, to achieve enfranchisement of South African blacks. Great credit for their leadership goes to Nelson Mandela, head of the African National Congress and South Africa's next president, as well as to the current president, Frederik W. de Klerk, who freed Mandela and called for elections. (De Klerk for vice president, anyone?) Many people strived for this moment, however, and the number of martyrs is incalculable.
It would have been tragic if the elections' legitimacy were questioned because of a boycott by the Inkatha Freedom Party, representing some 7 million Zulus. Fortunately, 11th-hour negotiations won Inkatha's participation. By giving the Zulu king a constitutional status and carving out a regional role for an Inkatha government, Mandela and de Klerk compromised the national, democratic character of the elections, but they lessened the potential for widespread violence.
As the bloodletting in Rwanda reminds, most African nations freed themselves from white rule only to suffer other forms of despair and division. Fragile democracy will need strong and sustained support - including from the United States and the international business community. Certainly, businesses that benefited under apartheid should consider opportunities to reinvest now that apartheid is dead.
As always, however, South Africans will determine their own fate. They will have to put violence and vengeance behind, substituting democracy for ethnic rivalry as the national order. They will have to face the challenges of economic restructuring, equalizing opportunity, constitutional reform and civil rapprochement, all as pressing after the elections as they were before.
And they will have to make the sort of gestures of reconciliation that are sorely needed to forge the founding spirit of a new society. Fortunately, they have a great example in the person of Mandela, who emerged from 27 years of imprisonment to offer his own hand in reconciliation, and now to become South Africa's first black president.
As they demonstrated by waiting in long lines and putting aside fears of violence to vote, South Africa's expanded citizenry also has hope as an ally. That is one of the election's greatest results.
by CNB