3 DAYS AWAY

The press was now urging the negotiators to complete the job they had started. City Press said: “This week support, prayers and sheer old-fashioned staying power were the request we threw at the feet of men and women writing our country’s new constitution. The work has been hard. Almost back-breaking … But they have one consolation: the harder their work, the more glorious will be their triumph.” The media were not the only ones praying.

I was sitting in my office early one of the last mornings when an old woman from Somerset West phoned. Where she got my telephone number, I don’t know. She said, in Afrikaans, ‘When I got up this morning, something told me that I should get on my knees and pray for you particularly.’ Can you believe it? I’m religious, but this call touched me right into my heart. I’ve never seen that lady. But something said to her that there is a man in Parliament who you should now phone and tell him that you’re praying for him. I will never forget it.

Piet Marais

Then National Party Member of The Constitutional Assembly

Poster from the Constitutional Assembly media campaign. Constitution Assembly

EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE

Audio Visual

President Mandela gives his State of the Nation address in Parliament. Mandela ends his address with the words, “Let us all get down to work”.

“We must construct that people-centred society of freedom in such a manner that it guarantees the political and the human rights of all our citizens.”– President Mandela, extract from State of the Nation Address, 24 May 1994

President Nelson Mandela announces his cabinet. It includes members of the African National Congress, National Party and Inkatha Freedom Party.

“There was pride in serving in the first democratic government in South Africa, and then the additional pride of serving under the iconic leadership of Nelson Mandela … [He] represented the hopes of not just our country, but of oppressed, marginalised and the poor in the world.”– Jay Naidoo, then Minister of RDP housing
“We place our vision of a new constitutional order for South Africa on the table not as conquerors, prescribing to the conquered. We speak as fellow citizens to heal the wounds of the past with the intent of constructing a new order based on justice for all.”– President Nelson Mandela, 10 May 1994