ABSTRACT
In April 1994, South Africa’s first national democratic elections took place in an atmosphere of unexpected peace and harmony. The ANC won a landslide victory, with its 62.7 per cent of the vote placing it well ahead of the National Party (with 20.4 per cent of the vote) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (with 10.5 per cent of the vote). Only in the KwaZulu-Natal Province and the Western Cape Province did opposition parties achieve a majority, and as a result the Western Cape Provincial government became the last stronghold of National Party rule. Nonetheless, the political and symbolic threshold into a new South Africa had been crossed (Marais 1998) and the new Government of National Unity1 set about its task of legislative and institutional reorganization.
