South Africa’s multi-party constitutional negotiation process ...It is therefore important that as we put our vision to the country, we should do so directly, knowing that people out there want to be part of the process and will be responding, because in the end the drafting of the constitution must not be the preserve of the 490 members of this Assembly. It must be a constitution which they feel they own, a constitution that they know and feel belongs to them. We must therefore draft a constitution that will be fully legitimate, a constitution that will represent the aspirations of our people . – Cyril Ramaphosa, Chairperson, Constitutional Assembly, 24 January 1995 South Africas diverse political parties – some of which had a broad membership base and numerous affiliated civil society organisations – were at the centre of the negotiations to decide South Africas political future culminating in a new Constitution. Although contested at times by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), South Africas leaders chose to design and negotiate the process by themselves without the guidance of an international mediator. The leadership of the two most powerful parties – the African National Congress (ANC) and the ruling National Party (NP) – were the most influential in both instigating and shaping the negotiation process and deciding its substantive outcomes. Throughout the long transitional process, they and the other parties engaged in a range of bilateral talks, seeking to resolve differences or make alliances to advance shared goals. Nevertheless, the main process was organised around formally constituted multi-party negotiating forums that allowed smaller political groupings to voice their perspectives and help shape agreements. Over time, these forums became increasingly open to the media and thus under public scrutiny. Many of the political parties used their membership structures to consult with their constituencies on key issues in the negotiations and to bring them along in the process, thus involving them indirectly in the negotiations and creating the foundations for a more inclusive representative democracy. Deciding the principles and structure of the negotiation process was as contentious as the substantive issues to be addressed within it. The ANC wanted a unitary state that would be a powerful instrument capable of transforming the conditions wrought by apartheid, while at the same time building in safeguards to protect rights from illegitimate state intervention. From the outset, it demanded an elected assembly to draft a new constitution. It argued that a democratic state can only be built on a firm democratic basis; the people, through their elected representatives, must write their own constitution. The NP and other smaller parties representing minority constituencies feared that an elected assembly would negate the purpose of negotiations and result in majority rule without constitutional safeguards to protect effective minority participation in political decision-making. They instead proposed a multi-party forum where all political parties – without regard to their electoral support – would agree by consensus to a new constitution subject to popular approval through a referendum. This dispute was eventually addressed through the formula of first holding a multi-party constitutional conference where all parties, irrespective of the size of their constituency could participate as equals to decide core constitutional principles and the structure of a transitional government. Then the public would elect the parties to form a power-sharing transitional government and the delegates to an assembly that would draft the final Constitution. The multi-party conference was called the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and, after that forum collapsed, the Multi-party Negotiating Process (MPNP). These formally constituted mechanisms became increasingly open to public scrutiny, creating the precedent for the transparent and consultative constitutional drafting process. This helped to provide widespread public legitimacy for the process to create what has become known as the new South Africa
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:49:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015