News24 | Jan Hofmeyer | Will the GNU resist the impulse for self-sabotage?

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From 27 April 1994 to 3 February 1997, South Africa was governed by a Government of National Unity (GNU) under President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President FW De Klerk. (Louise Gubb/Getty Images)

While there is little to compare the circumstances that shaped the 1994 political transition with those of today, we are once again presented with a brief window of opportunity to change course on a road that leads nowhere, writes Jan Hofmeyr.

In 1994, South Africa stepped back from the abyss.

Sworn enemies accepted the futility of a winner-take-all approach to settling the country’s future, and, in doing so, it defied the widely held expectation at the time this was bound to be a drawn-out war of attrition until the bitter end. This did happen.

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