4 DAYS AWAY
Poster from the Constitutional Assembly media campaign. Constitutional Assembly
Negotiators were now confident that the technical refinement team could draft amendments for consideration by the political parties later in the day. Several ANC proposals had been tabled regarding the Bill of Rights, the property clause and the lock-out clause. There was agreement on how these clauses would be formulated. Over the next 12 hours, the technical team met with each party to go through the bill chapter by chapter. The document was then sent to print. Education remained the outstanding point on the agenda. Closed-door negotiations continued throughout the day and night. Some of the key negotiators on both sides of the fence withdrew from the process, too weary to continue the fight.
The principle in negotiations, which I learnt pretty quickly, is that in order to negotiate in good faith, you have to respect the other side. But to be quite honest, on the education issue, I couldn’t help but feel that I despised the Nats because they were trying in all sorts of ways to really entrench apartheid. In that way, I preferred the Freedom Front, because they were very straight and honest with us.
Blade Nzimande
then ANC member of the Constitutional Assembly
Reports on progress emerged but no finality was in fact reached. The different party caucuses fluctuated between jubilation and despair when they thought agreement had been reached, only to discover further disagreements had cropped up. Only three days remained before the country was meant to have a new Constitution. Tensions were at breaking point.
