Living History: The End of Apartheid in South Africa
This interview with Andrew Thompson, a UN election observer, offers insight into the experience of the end of the South African apartheid regime
Background Info
The end of apartheid in South Africa was a pivotal moment in the history of South Africa. It ended decades of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination. These government sponsored laws enforced white supremacy. This led to widespread oppression of the black population, which represented a majority of the South African population. The black population outnumbered the white population by about 4:1. The struggle against apartheid was led by figures like Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC). Key events, including Mandela's release from prison in 1990, culminated in the 1994 multiracial elections. Nelson Mandela's election as the first black president of South Africa symbolized the official end of apartheid and the beginning of a new democratic era.
Introducing the Guest
“My name is Andrew Thompson. I grew up in New Zealand and I trained in medicine. Quite soon after I graduated, I went to work in Cambodia as a doctor for the Red Cross, and then I stayed there to work with the UN. I saw a lot of war. First in Cambodia and Bosnia, and then I went to work in Haiti. But I want to tell you about my most inspiring mission and it was one that I did in South Africa. In South Africa, in April of 1994, was the first free election - and it ended up bringing Nelson Mandela's party, the ANC, to power. So, the UN sent observers to cover the election. And so I went as a UN observer, and I wasn't there as a doctor. I was there just as a UN staff member observing whether the election was free and fair.”
What were you looking for as an election observer? Did they give you any training?
“The idea was to have as many outsiders there as possible. So if there was any cheating, someone could ring the alarm bell. I mean, either side could have cheated. It was the most observed election in history, I think. It was fair and it was free - and it was peaceful. They just said go and make sure it's free and fair and check that the polling was fair. I didn't have any training. I guess I looked for double balloting, or people with weapons trying to intimidate voters one way or another, but none of that happened.”
If you had found that the election was not free and not fair, what were you supposed to have done about that?
“I suppose I was supposed to report to my boss who would report to his boss and then I don't know what would have happened after that. Because as I was saying, we didn't get any training for that. I mean, a lot of it was common sense. You know, in a funny way, it didn't matter much because it was obvious who was going to win. Once it was decided that there would be one man, one vote, obviously the black Africans were going to win it right? They had a large majority. That's what the whites had resisted for so long, for decades. So the result wasn't a surprise, but the fact that it was peaceful and there was so little violence on polling day was a huge relief.”
The Tension in the Streets
“They sent me to a town in the north of South Africa called Petersburg, and Petersburg was a white town. Many of the whites in that town were quite racist, and they feared the arrival of a black majority government, and they knew that was going to happen. They knew that they would lose the election - there was this political situation which was tense, very violent. I remember this tension well, because we were with the UN, so we had a team with many different races. I had colleagues who were African, European, Asian, both men and women. And one time I was walking with a colleague from Botswana down the main road and we got jeered at by some whites in a car. They didn't like the idea of a white man walking with a black woman in the streets. That’s to give you an idea of how racist their thinking was. It was very, very tense because many people thought there would be war after the election. They thought the black government would take power and that the white army wouldn't accept that, so it was extremely tense.”
Meeting Nelson Mandela
“I remember two moments very well, but one was when Nelson Mandela and his team were on the campaign trail. He came with his team to Petersburg, the town where we were living, and my boss sent a message to the hotel that he was staying in: “the UN team would like to visit you and present their credentials.” I thought that was ridiculous. Nelson Mandela, who's about to win the first free election after 40 years of struggle, why would he be interested in a UN team? And, you know, I said to my boss, “you're an idiot. You don't understand. This guy is one of the most important people in the world at the moment. He is not interested in the UN team.” But, through his people, Nelson Mandela said, “Yes, I'd like to meet the UN team,” which is already amazing, just so humble of him. And so we went out to a hotel, and he was staying out in the countryside. On a Saturday morning, there were about eight of us there, and we walked into the lobby of the hotel. I expected there would be massive security, because you can imagine the threats to Nelson Mandela's life at that time from white extremists. And it was very, very casual. There were two bodyguard-looking types, African men, in the lobby. One of them came up and said, “Oh, you must be on the UN team. Mr. Mandela is a bit tired but he'd like to receive you in his hotel room.” I thought that this was just amazing. This is crazy. Where's the security? There were just these two guys! And so we filed into Nelson Mandela's hotel room, his bedroom, and it was quite a small room. I'm thinking, this is Nelson Mandela. I'm Andrew Thompson. I'm sitting on the floor at his feet next to his bed. He just started talking and he was so humble and so great. And you notice funny details at that time. He had cotton wool sticking out of both his ears, it looked very strange. He had bad ear infections when he was a prisoner on Robben Island for 30 years, and so his hearing was affected. He went around the room, and we introduced ourselves, and from each country we came from, he knew someone in that country. So I said “I'm from New Zealand, Mr. Mandela, and I'm a medical doctor.” He said “I met your prime minister last week, you know, give him my regards.” I said, sarcastically, “well, I don't see him very often, but I'm glad, thank you for that.” You must realize what a towering figure he was internationally, because when he looked around, he knew important people in every country that we represented. And so we talked to him and I'm still thinking, you know, they're going to kill this guy. We are here with the UN. There are no bodyguards. There's no one at this hotel. This guy is gonna get assassinated. I was worried. Anyway, we talked to him for about an hour, back and forth, and then we left and went back to where we were living in Petersburg. Before we left, a couple of the secretaries asked him for a photo. So we took photos with Mr. Mandela. And I thought, well, I'm a UN official. We’re supposed to be neutral in the election, so I can't be seen having photos with him. So I didn't get a photo with him. That is one of the big regrets in my life. They had a photo and I didn’t, because I was too neutral to take a photo with Nelson Mandela.”
The Election
“Some weeks after that, the election happened, and the whole world was watching, waiting for terrible violence. However, we all thought that the election day was peaceful. There were long lines of black people and white people at the election booths peacefully. I have a very moving memory from midnight on the day before the election. All around the country, there were ceremonies where the old flag was pulled down from the flagpoles and the new flag went up. So in Petersburg, where we were staying, there was the town hall and a pond, and in the middle was the flagpole. My colleagues went to bed, but I said, I'm not going to bed. I'm going to be there at midnight for this. This is historic. So I went down to the Town Hall to watch, and the flag of the apartheid regime, which was so hated by most of the people in South Africa, came down.
So I went down, and when the flag of the apartheid regime came down, it was sort of a funeral march for many of the white South Africans watching, because they felt as though their country was gone. And then, the new South African flag went up. The multicolored flag of the rainbow nation, right? And there was a black band, which piped it up. You could see the contrast between the two regimes, the white one that was dying, and the new one that had risen. When the flag came up, I started crying. I was so moved by this contrast, and this historical moment, I was just on my own crying like an idiot.
I went over to the white mayor, and he was folding up the flag, looking very sad and probably really, very worried that war was going to break out within the next day. And I said to him, “would you mind if I took that flag? You know, do you need it?” He said, “no, I don't.” So there I was. I had the old South African flag in my hands. And then, one of his counselors came up to him and said that the flag was to go to some historical museum, so I had to give the flag back. The following day was the election, which went so well. I've still got the newspaper from that day, and there's a helicopter shot of a queue snaking round from an election booth with both black and white people voting peacefully. I still get tears when I think of it now. There was a big banner: “One long line to freedom,” it said.
And then, maybe three weeks later, I was in Cape Town. The Parliament of South Africa is in Cape Town even though the capital is Pretoria. So Mr. Mandela, who was the president-elect, came down to Cape Town with F.W. de Klerk, who was the outgoing president, and Desmond Tutu, who was the famous Anglican Archbishop. They stood on the balcony of the parliament in Cape Town, which is a colonial building, and there was a crowd of people. Mandela, from my point of view, wasn't a very charismatic speaker. He was quite soft spoken when you met him in person. Tutu, on the other hand, is very charismatic. He speaks with huge enthusiasm. He throws his arms around and he's a clerical guy, a preacher, and he was the one to introduce Mandela. And here is the handing over of power after centuries of injustice and apartheid, and we all started dancing. An African woman who was dressed in an African flag, like her dress was the ANC flag, she picked me up and literally swung me around in the air with joy. And she was smaller than me, but I was skinny I guess. And I just had this memory of Mandela and Tutu and de Klerk standing up there. De Klerk was part of the peace process because he was the first white president who said okay, we have to move towards majority rule. So this image of these three men, and then being swirled around by this African woman, you know, those are my memories of that intense time.
At exactly that time, the genocide was breaking out in Rwanda. At first, here in South Africa was this moment of magic. Inspiration for the whole world. At the same time, a few hours flight to the north, this incredible brutality was breaking out. Months later I was in Rwanda, dealing with the mass graves in my work for the UN war crimes tribunal. I would think back to that time in South Africa and think, why, why did one country go down the road of peace, and why did Rwanda erupt into into mass murder and genocide? I still can't put those two together in my mind happening on the same continent at the same time. Anyway, I was very privileged to be there. And I never did get that South African flag.”