Internal and external pressure to negotiate in South Africa: an interview with Roelf Meyer
In this interview (conducted in November 2007), former National Party (NP) chief negotiator Roelf Meyer explores the influence external actors had on South Africa's transition from apartheid rule to multiparty democracy. He traces the build up of a combination of external pressure (through sanctions) and internal pressure (through civil unrest and violence) that created deep crisis in the late 1980s and led the new NP leader F.W. De Klerk to release Nelson Mandela and enter into talks with the African National Congress in 1990. He shows how the importance of international pressure reduced considerably from that point - far more important was the evolving relationship between the parties and the effects of ongoing violence. The most critical breakthrough was achieved through paradigm shifts that were forced upon the parties by the breakdown of formal negotiations in 1992.