20/19 DAYS AWAY A marathon all-night session of the Constitutional Committee was held on Thursday night, 18 April 1996, starting at eight in the evening and ending at 5.47 on a chilly Friday morning. This was later remembered as one of the most vital and dramatic days of the entire process. At the start of …
21 DAYS AWAY On 17 April, Ramaphosa accepted a petition from the thousands of chemical workers who had marched to the Constitutional Assembly to present their rejection of the lock-out clause. A similar march was held the next day by members of the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU). The Memorandum comes at a time …
23 DAYS AWAY On 15 April 1996, the Constitutional Committee received a copy of the new draft. The committee now had four days to resolve the deadlocked issues and produce a bill to go before the Constitutional Assembly. At this point the ‘channel bilateral’, a ‘two-by-two’, was reinstated between Cyril Ramaphosa and Valli Moosa of …
38 DAYS AWAY Between 1 and 3 April 1996, members of political parties, together with their advisers, technical advisers to the Assembly and the Independent Panel of Constitutional Experts, decamped from parliament to Arniston, a small, secluded seaside village in the Western Cape. The press was kept out of the closed-door sessions held at Die Herberg, …
2 MONTHS AWAY In mid-March 1996, the Management Committee evaluated progress after considering the fourth edition of the Working Draft. Roelf Meyer observed: The more difficult issues had been fairly easily resolved while some of the issues that were originally thought to be of lesser importance became the final stumbling blocks. These stumbling blocks were: …
3 MONTHS AWAY By the beginning of February, as work resumed, the full magnitude of the task that lay ahead became all too clear. A mild panic began to set in. There were just three months to go and many outstanding issues still had to be resolved. On 15 February 1996, the Management Committee formally …
5 MONTHS AWAY In December 1995 and January 1996, politicians and technical advisers travelled to Britain and Germany to gain insights into different constitutional models. During this period, there was little visible activity on the Constitution website, except for the new advertising campaign messages for 1996: ‘Securing your freedom. Securing your rights. The new Constitution’ …
7 MONTHS AWAY Despite political and technical objections to the Working Draft, the CA approved it in November 1995. On 22 November, over 5 million copies of the Working Draft in all 11 official languages were printed and distributed throughout the whole country. 2.8 million were inserted into newspapers from November 1995 through to January …
8 MONTHS AWAY Finally, in October 1995 the first milestone was reached. The CA was presented with a completed Refined Working Draft of the Constitution. After a year of meeting to discuss submissions and public opinion, there was something real on the table on which to negotiate. The CA Chairperson declared: For the first time …
9 MONTHS AWAY The drafters pressed on with their task. They were assisted by the technical refinement team headed by Canadian lawyer Phil Knight – the only non-South African to take part in the negotiations – and a team of South African lawyers. His role was precisely to be an outside eye in terms of …
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”.
President Nelson Mandela announces his cabinet. It includes members of the African National Congress, National Party and Inkatha Freedom Party.
