Una perspectiva sobre la transición política en Suráfrica

Abstract

South Africa was first to suffer substantial colonial settlement and the last to end rule by white people officially ruled. Racist South Africa had ruled Namibia on behalf of, first League of Nations and then the United Nations. Within South Africa, it entrenched official racist governing structures that were termed apartheid at the very time that the rest of the world was condemning racism. It took advantage of the Cold War to claim that it was an ideological bastion of Western Civilization in Africa against Communist inspired blacks; it worked for roughly forty years after the rest of Africa attained political independence. Prolonged domestic and international pressure forced South Africa to abandon the apartheid political structure. Beginning 1990, South Africa entered a transition period that required prudent management in order to avoid chaos. The two men who successfully managed this change were President Frederick de Klerk representing the interests of white people and the prisoner he released in 1990, Nelson Mandela, who represented the aspirations of black people. Mandela's task was to create a sense of confidence in the new South Africa and he succeeded in changing the image of South Africa from that of an unacceptable racist country into an African player in international dealings. He retired from the presidency and left his deputy, Thabo Mbeki, to worry about long term issues of transition politics.