There seemed little prospect of peace before the election. Despite the heightened presence of South African troops, the death toll from political violence in Natal climbed to more than 200 in the three weeks since President F. W. de Klerk imposed a state of emergency on the province. Seven of those victims were young black men who were distributing nonpartisan pamphlets that explained voting rights under the country’s new Constitution. The victims were allegedly detained in the rural community of Ndwedwe by a local Zulu chief Their tortured bodies were later found hacked and burned to death.
ANC secretary-general Cyril Ramaphosa conceded last week that security forces were encountering “quite a number of problems” in Natal. But authorities brushed aside any suggestion that the carnage there would jeopardize the holding of “free and fair” elections in that province, or anywhere else in South Africa. “We will not buckle down to the spoilers,” declared judge Johann Kriegler of the Independent Electoral Commission. “Let the vast majority who want to vote do so.”
There is nothing Buthelezi can do to pre-vent most South Africans from doing exactly that. The election campaign began to look more like a normal democratic process when Mandela and de Klerk held their first televised presidential debate last Thursday. Mandela, who is widely expected to be the next president, accused de Klerk’s government of encouraging violence. De Klerk, who hopes to stop the ANC from winning an invulnerable two-thirds majority in the new Parliament, argued: “If any one party gets too much power, it will be a bad beginning.” Toward the end, Mandela suddenly changed the mood, stretching out his hand to de Klerk. “I am proud to hold your hand-for us to go forward together,” said Mandela. It was a gesture of civility and compromise that seemed a world away from the killing fields of Natal.
