Special Report Transcript Episode 16, Section 2, Time 18:20

PW Botha suffered a stroke in 1989. He was succeeded by Frederik Willem de Klerk. De Klerk was faced with this choice: more radical reform or more radical repression. He chose reform. // ‘Tomorrow will bring us to the end of a long chapter. What I’ve announced today was started by my predecessor a number of years ago. Since the moment that Mister Mandela met him at Tuynhuis and since the moment that in that discussion Mr. Mandela clearly stated his commitment also to peaceful solutions it has become a certainty that he would be released.’ // The process gathered its own momentum. After three years of negotiations South Africa had its first real election and on May 10 1994 Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as president. // ‘The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divides us has come. The time to build is upon us.’

Notes: FW de Klerk in Parliament; De Klerk, February 10, 1990; Mandela’s release; Mandela at his inauguration

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