ABSTRACT
When change did come, it ultimately reflected this negotiated-settlement and its inherent compromises – a solution that could never solve all the problems found in both the old and new dispensations. The new intelligence dispensation that was established in 1994 was – first – crucial to the furthering of a peaceful settlement between the former apartheid government and the former liberation groups, while – second – aiming to develop solutions for many of the problems cited in other intelligence and security services. On 26 April 1994, South Africans of all backgrounds began to vote in the first truly democratic election that the country had ever seen. As Waldmeir noted, the days before the election witnessed “carnage, as right-wing car bombs left dismembered bodies strewn across the streets of Johannesburg and the television screens of the nation”. Yet the election day itself dawned calm, clear and ordered – and, by the end of the election process, De Klerk had conceded the presidency to Nelson Mandela, and the ANC had won 62.7 per cent of the popular vote, against the National Party’s 20.4 per cent. Crucially, the IFP was also satisfied with the vote – and so, as with the rest of the negotiated settlement in ignoring the evidence of significant voting fraud, South Africans moved into a new future under an ANC-led Government of National Unity (GNU).1
