NEGOTIATING DIVISIONS IN A DIVIDED LAND: CREATING PROVINCES FOR A NEW SOUTH AFRICA, 1993 SYNOPSIS As South Africa worked to draft a post-apartheid constitution in the months leading up to its first fully democratic elections in 1994, the disparate groups negotiating the transition from apartheid needed to set the country’s internal boundaries. By 1993, the negotiators had agreed that the new constitution would divide the country into provinces, but the thorniest issues remained: the number of provinces and their borders. Lacking reliable population data and facing extreme time pressure, the decision makers confronted explosive political challenges. South Africa in the early 1990s was a patchwork of provinces and “homelands,” ethnically defined areas for black South Africans. Some groups wanted provincial borders drawn according to ethnicity, which would strengthen their political bases but also reinforce divisions that had bedeviled the country’s political past. Those groups threatened violence if they did not get their way. To reconcile the conflicting interests and defuse the situation, the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum established a separate, multiparty commission. Both the commission and its technical committee comprised individuals from different party backgrounds who had relevant skills and expertise. They agreed on a set of criteria for the creation of new provinces and solicited broad input from the public. In the short term, the Commission on the Demarcation/Delimitation of States/Provinces/Regions balanced political concerns and technical concerns, satisfied most of the negotiating parties, and enabled the elections to move forward by securing political buy-in from a wide range of factions. In the long term, however, the success of the provincial boundaries as subnational administrations has been mixed. Tumi Makgetla and Rachel Jackson drafted this policy note based on interviews conducted by Makgetla in Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa, in February 2010. A separate policy note, “Refashioning Provincial Government in Democratic South Africa, 1994-1996,” focuses on the two-year mandate of the Commission on Provincial Government. Case originally published August 2010. Case revised and republished October 2012. ISS is program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs: successfulsocieties.princeton.edu. ISS invites readers to share feedback and information on how these cases are being used: [email protected]. © 2014, Trustees of Princeton University. This case study is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Tumi Makgetla and Rachel Jackson Innovations for Successful Societies INTRODUCTION In September 1991, the National Peace By 1990, South Africa’s National Party Accord, signed by 27 political groups and (NP) government saw the writing on the wall: territory governments, established a a government based on the racial negotiating process in order to draft a new segregation policy of apartheid was constitution for South Africa. But unsustainable. Faced with mass rioting, subsequent party talks proceeded fitfully, international sanctions and a determined stalling amid civilian fighting and violent underground resistance, President F.W. de protests throughout the country. Ultimately, Klerk unbanned the African National the ANC accused the NP government of Congress (ANC)—the anti-apartheid involvement in civilian clashes and withdrew movement led by Nelson Mandela— and from the talks. entered into secret negotiations with In 1992, the NP government and the Mandela and other ANC representatives to ANC to agree to return to the negotiating formulate a plan for transition to a post- table to seek a political settlement after the apartheid government. deaths of more than 60 people in civilian The new government was to preside violence. The assassination of popular ANC over a unified South Africa of equal leader and general secretary of the citizenship for all regardless of ethnicity, Communist Party Chris Hani in April 1993 thereby ending the practice of using by a man tied to South Africa’s Afrikaner far segregated homeland territories, or right accelerated the pressure on negotiators Bantustans, to divide the black African to reach a settlement. “The outcome of the majority from the white and other minority Chris Hani assassination was that there was populations. Under apartheid, the then a consensus between the government government did not recognize residents of and the ANC [that we] would have to move Bantustans as full citizens of South Africa, as forward very quickly,” said Roelf Meyer, a part of a broader strategy of racial chief negotiator for the NP government. “If segregation and discrimination. Apartheid we didn’t do that, the masses would have had marginalized the black South African taken to the streets and demanded population—79% of the population in the immediate takeover.” 2001 census—and elevated the 9.6% white The ANC and the NP began bilateral South African population to govern the talks, and by 1993, other parties had country, with limited representation of returned to the table as well. Formally mixed-race individuals and individuals of known as the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum Asian descent. The apartheid government (MPNF), the negotiators, representing a used the homelands to further divide the broad swath of political constituencies, black South African population into adopted an interim constitution and set language groups (the largest of which, Zulu, April 1994 as the deadline for a new constituted only 23.8% of the population in constitution and election. They also agreed 2001) and at times worked at creating that the new constitution would divide the conflict between the groups. country into provinces. 2 © 2014, Trustees of Princeton University Terms of use and citation format appear at the end of this document and at successfulsocieties.princeton.edu/about/terms-conditions. Tumi Makgetla and Rachel Jackson Innovations for Successful Societies Initially, the ANC had resisted a into governable areas without reinforcing decentralized state structure, preferring the racial segregation that had been consolidation in a central government they practiced by the apartheid regime or were likely to control. On the other side, the rewarding fringe groups that used violence political parties whose support bases rested to advance their agendas while still keeping largely on a single ethnic or cultural them part of an inclusive process. identity—the NP, the largely white At the time, South Africa was divided Democratic Party (DP) and the Zulu-based into four provinces and 10 homeland areas. Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)—had pushed Two of the provinces were former British for a decentralized system that would enable colonies—the Cape of Good Hope and them to retain power in smaller areas of the Natal—and the others had previously been country where they could win the vote. In an independent Boer republics—Orange Free essay published on his foundation’s website State and Transvaal—established by after the end of apartheid, de Klerk called Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch colonial the provincial system “one of the new settlers. The four provinces had been joined constitution’s great compromises: on the as a single country, the Union of South one hand, [the provinces] were not nearly as Africa, in 1910. The South African strong as the IFP, the NP and the DP government began the practice of apartheid wanted; on the other hand, they provided in 1948 and created the homelands in order much greater devolution of power to regions to segregate the black South African 1 than the ANC originally advocated.” population into ethnic enclaves that would function as legally distinct autonomous or THE CHALLENGE semiautonomous nation states, thereby In mid-1993, with elections looming, the denying South Africa citizenship and voting post-apartheid map of South Africa was still rights to their residents. The autonomous largely undecided. Where the apartheid homelands of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, government had used internal boundaries Venda and Ciskei had been designed by the for an agenda of racial segregation, MPNF apartheid regime to function completely negotiators were faced with the task of independently from the South African dividing the country for provincial rule government and economy. The remaining without reinforcing old wounds or creating six—Gazankulu, KaNgwane, KwaNdebele, new ones. Any discussion about new KwaZulu, Lebowa and Qwaqwa—were borders would open the door to groups that considered only partially autonomous. wanted ethnic enclaves with strong degrees In the 1993 talks, the main parties of independence from South Africa. Many of agreed to move away from ethnically defined those groups used violence to gain attention boundaries, though they were not yet able to from the larger negotiating parties, which come up with a single, mutually acceptable tended to have more-inclusive outlooks and map. more-widespread support. For negotiators, The ANC rejected the homelands as the key challenge lay in dividing the country fictions of the apartheid regime. Unable to 3 © 2014, Trustees of Princeton University Terms of use and citation format appear at the end of this document and at successfulsocieties.princeton.edu/about/terms-conditions. Tumi Makgetla and Rachel Jackson Innovations for Successful Societies sustain themselves independently, ethnically diverse community, they stood homelands existed only to fulfill the