MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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BREAKING THE CHAINS

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By GENE MUSTAIN and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers | Sunday, April 3, 1994

JOHANNESBURG—Against a backdrop of hope and fear, a nation’s epic march toward democracy has entered a bloody home stretch.

The people of South Africa—including, for the first time, the majority black population—will go to the polls later this month and alter the course of their bitter history.

They will elect a new national government and officially close the door on apartheid—the code of racist law by which some 5.6 million whites kept 24 million blacks and others of mixed race in symbolic chains for nearly half a century.

“It’s a liberation election that finally puts the beast of apartheid in the grave,” said Larry Shore, a Hunter College professor who, like many white activist South Africans, left the country long ago out of fear or disgust.

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May 11, 2009
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CAULDRON OF CHANGE

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

Text: MICHAEL O. ALLEN; Maps & Design: JIM WILLIS | Sunday, April 3, 1994

HISTORY’S LESSONS

South Africa, as it enters a world made uncertain by the end of apartheid, should look to the post-independence experiences of Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The same fears being raised today about South Africa’s stumble to democracy were raised in Zimbabwe leading up to its independence from Britain in 1980. and in Namibia a decade later when it emerged from under the thumb of South Africa.

A quick answer—if Namibia and Zimbabwe are guides—is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The liberation fighters who took power retain firm control in both nations. Power has not made blacks wealthier, however. In both instances, they are as poor today as they ever were under white domination.

Whites in both situations, retain economic power and live as well as they ever have.

Namibia, though its blacks remain dreadfully poor, is peaceful today and is much forgotten by the rest of the world.

Zimbabwe, after a brief but violent aftermath to its independence, is poised for its third election next year. It has the most vigorous press in Africa, a stable, though not vibrant, economy and a fairly content white population.

1.   IN TRANSITION

The multi-racial Transitional Executive Council shares broad governing powers with South Africa’s ruling National Party.

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May 8, 2009
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DE KLERK—WHITE HOPE

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer | Sunday, April 3, 1994

The scenes are stunning: blacks lustily cheering apartheid scion Frederik Willem de Klerk as he campaigns for re-election to the presidency of South Africa.

The happy candidate obliges by donning Zulu tribal hats, carrying spears and cowhide shields.

“I’m white,” he told one black audience, “but my heart pumps the same red blood as the red blood in the heart of every South African.”

De Klerk, 58, was born into a staunchly political Afrikaner family in the Transvaal. As his great-grandfather and his father, he represented the province in parliament. So, the deeply religious father of three caught most people by surprise when he began dismantling apartheid.

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May 6, 2009
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S. AFRICA IS EYING THE PRIZE

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer | Sunday, April 24, 1994

SOWETO—With rousing gusto, Nelson Mandela and some 60,000 frenzied supporters celebrated the approaching end of a bitter journey yesterday here in the place where their freedom quest began nearly 20 years ago.

They did the toyi-toyi, the dance of celebration. They sang songs, waved placards, set off fireworks and hoisted a coffin bearing the words, “Farewell Apartheid.”

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April 26, 2009
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Face-off in S. Africa_Mandela, de Klerk Share Debate Stage

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By GENE MUSTAIN and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers | Friday, April 15, 1994

DURBAN, South Africa—In what was unimaginable just four years ago, a black man and a white man seeking to lead this country into democracy appeared on the same stage last night and asked South Africans for color-blind support.

The two candidates—Nobel Prize winners Nelson Mandela and President F.W. de Klerk—went at each other like the clubhouse pros they are, but at the end of this nation’s first legitimate presidential debate, they shook hand and appealed for national conciliation.

“I am proud to hold your hand—for us to go forward together,” Mandela, leader of the African National Congress Party, told de Klerk. “Let us work together to end division and suspicion . . . Let us work together for reconciliation and nation-building.”

“The whole world is waiting for us to succeed,” said de Klerk, leader of the National Party.

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April 24, 2009
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NEW CHALLENGES FOR A NEW NATION_Mandela Facing a Huge Task

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and GENE MUSTAIN, Daily News Staff Writers | Sunday, May 1, 1994

JOHANNESBURG—It was a symbolic moment too rich to miss—the eclipse of apartheid and a new day dawning on black aspirations for power.

Under a full moon about two poignant minutes apart, before and after midnight one day last week, a white soldier lowered from the flagpole for the last time South Africa’s old flag and a black soldier raised its new colors.

“The old flag meant a lot to me, but I am prepared to serve under the new flag,” said Cpl. Anton Jooste, the white soldier.

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April 12, 2009
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Mandela, ANC Heading for Solid Win in Election

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By GENE MUSTAIN and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers | Monday, May 2, 1994

JOHANNESBURG—Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress was headed for victory yesterday with a 54.7% share of the vote so far in South Africa’s national election.
Despite slow and chaotic vote counting, the ANC and its president, Mandela, appeared headed for a convincing, yet mildly disappointing victory in seven of South Africa’s nine new provinces.
About 23 million ballots were cast in the nation’s first all-race election last week.
With only about 21% of the vote counted, ANC spokesmen were reluctant to claim victory. But they projected that the party would receive 54% to 58% of the vote—about 20% more than former President F.W. de Klerk’s National Party.
The strong showing by the National Party, however, suggests a post-apartheid power structure similar to the Mandela-de Klerk team that led the transition to democracy.
“In spite of the proportional voting system, we are headed for a two-party system,” Sampie Terreblance, referring to the allocation of parliament and cabinet seats according to each party’s vote total.
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April 10, 2009
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BRIGHT NEW DAY IN SOUTH AFRICA: We’re Also Set Free by Vote, Whites Say

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By GENE MUSTAIN and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers | Tuesday, May 3, 1994

JOHANNESBURG—After thinking about it for three decades, 74-year-old Arthur Holland decided to become a South African citizen yesterday.
“My conscience won’t bother me anymore,” said the semi-retired white businessman, who came here with the British army and never left.
“This has been my home and life, but I could never bring myself to becoming a citizen until now,” he added, a few hours before 76-year-old Nelson Mandela accepted the responsibility of leading the new South Africa.
The results of the nation’s first all-race election show that the overwhelming majority of whites support the transition to a nonracial democracy and have undergone the same remarkable transformation of spirit as F. W. de Klerk, the leader of the former masters of apartheid, the National Party.
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April 9, 2009
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