Chapter 3D – CCTSA

CODESA 3

CODESA BREAKS DOWN

a democratically elected transitional Parliament that would legislate during an interim period, and would also sit as a Constitutional Assembly that would write the final Constitution; and
an interim period during which there would be a multi-party government and separation of powers between the executive, legislature, and judiciary.

CODESA broke down when it could not reach agreement on the percentages that would be required for the adoption of a final Constitution. This led to the collapse of CODESA I.

CODESA II convened on 15 May 1992. However, it failed to resolve differences on the nature of
the interim government and the percentages required to adopt the final Constitution.

CODESA broke down finally on 17 June 1992 in reaction to the killing of 45 people at Boipatong in the Southern Transvaal. The ANC blamed the massacre on the South African government and withdrew from all the agreements that had been reached at CODESA. However, subsequent investigations cleared the South African Government of any involvement in the incident.

Funerals after the Biopatong Massacre

ROLLING MASS ACTION

The ANC embarked on a process of ‘rolling mass action’, including strikes and mass protests in cities throughout South Africa. This was sometimes called the ‘Leipzig Option’ because it was hoped that it would lead to the fall of the South African government in the same way that mass protests in Leipzig a few years earlier had led to the collapse of the East German government.

Rolling mass action reached a critical point on 7 September 1992 when 28 ANC members were killed by the Ciskei Defence Force following a march on the Ciskeian capital of Bisho.

Rolling mass action demonstrations