John C. Eby - The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa, 1993

The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa, 1993

REACTING TO THE PAST is an award-winning series of immersive role-playing games that actively engage students in their own learning. Students assume the roles of historical characters and practice critical thinking, primary source analysis, and argument, both written and spoken. Reacting games are flexible enough to be used across the curriculum, from first-year general education classes and discussion sections of lecture classes to capstone experiences, intersession courses, and honors programs.

Reacting to the Past was originally developed under the auspices of Barnard College and is sustained by the Reacting Consortium of colleges and universities. The Consortium hosts a regular series of conferences and events to support faculty and administrators.

Note to instructors: Before beginning the game you must download the Gamemasters Materials, including an instructors guide containing a detailed schedule of class sessions, role sheets for students, and handouts.

To download this essential resource, visit https://reactingconsortium.org/games, click on the page for this title, then click Instructors Guide.

The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa, 1993

JOHN C. EBY AND FRED MORTON

The University of North Carolina Press

Chapel Hill

Participants in this game may play historical characters. The representation of historical people by individuals playing this game is a matter of personal interpretation and should not be considered a thorough or precise depiction of the character.

2022 The University of North Carolina Press

All rights reserved

Set in Utopia and The Sans by Westchester Publishing Services

The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.

Cover illustration: Frederik de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 1992. Copyright World Economics Forum (www.weforum.org).

ISBN 978-1-4696-3316-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4696-3317-6 (e-book)

Contents

Abbreviations Used in the Text

ANC

African National Congress

ANCWW

African National Congress, Womens Wing

ANCYL

African National Congress, Youth League

APLA

Azanian Peoples Liberation Army

AVU

Afrikaner Volksunie

AZAPO

Azanian Peoples Organisation

CCB

Civil Co-Operation Bureau

CODESA

Convention for a Democratic South Africa

COMSA

Commonwealth Observer Mission to South Africa

COSAG

Concerned South Africans Group

COSATU

Congress of South African Trade Unions

CP

Conservative Party

DP

Democratic Party

DRC

Dutch Reformed Church

IFP

Inkatha Freedom Party

INC

Indian National Congress

MK

Umkhonto we Sizwe

MPNP

Multi-Party Negotiating Process

NEC

National Executive Committee (ANC)

NIC

Natal Indian Congress

NP

National Party

PAC

Pan-Africanist Party

SACP

South African Communist Party

SADF

South African Defence Force

SAP

South African Police

UDF

United Democratic Front

ZCC

Zionist Christian Church

The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa, 1993

Introduction

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE GAME

The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa is a reacting role-playing game in which participants assume roles in the 1993 Multi-Party Negotiating Process (MPNP) at the World Trade Centre in Johannesburg. In their roles, participants seek to navigate complex political relationships, a troubling history, and often dissonant goals and concerns to build a constitution for a post-apartheid state.

While the historical setting for this game was deeply shaped by the legacies of European colonialism, years of racist political policy, and systematic injustice and disproportionate privileging of a minority population, this is not a game about race. Instead, this game reflects the highly complex interrelationships of racial groups in the collaborative effort to create a just society out of one that had been defined by injustice.

The immediate context for the game is a tense sociopolitical atmosphere that is on the verge of erupting into violent civil conflict. In fact, everyone expects things to head in that direction after a series of failed attempts at political negotiation. Only you, the participants in the MPNP, can put a halt to what seems to be an inevitable bloodbath.

You will begin in All-Party sessions in which the assembly meets as a whole to discuss some critical initial issues, mostly importantly whether the constitution drafted by the MPNP will be permanent or temporary. The process will then devolve to smaller Constitutional Working Groups (CWG) that will attempt to hash out details of the constitution in more manageable pieces. Finally, you will all reconvene in All-Party Talks to discuss the constitutional recommendations of each CWG and decide whether they are to be adopted or not.

All the while, skepticism abounds on the streets, and daily, even hourly, news comes to you of events looming over your conference, threatening to disable and destroy this last-ditch effort.

PROLOGUE: A COUNTRY ON THE BRINK

1 April, 1993

Your first trip to South Africa? he said to me as we took our seats next to one another on the flight from London to Johannesburg. Let me guessAmerican?

Yeah. My first trip overseas, all right. Im from Illinois. What about you? I had no clue. He looked like he was from India or Pakistan or someplace like that.

I guessed right about you, so what do you think? he said, looking at me, amused. Indian? I said, in what seemed like a whisper.

Ha ha, he chuckled. Im South African, from Joburg, though some of my relatives in Durban came from British India generations ago. Not the answer you expected, eh? Names Rahim.

Hi, Rahim. John. John Willmaeker. Whats Joburg? Maybe I should get back to my magazine. But I kind of like this guy .

After takeoff, I told him a bit about where Im from and that I was headed to South Africa to spend a month or two traveling around the region. After that, I planned to do a semester at the University of Cape Town, starting in August. Rahim was taking a break from Sussex University to see his family and attend his first cousins wedding, which, from the sound of it, was going to be a big deal.

Then came the meal, a movie, and, surprisingly, sleep. With two hours left before landing, the flight attendants roused us and served up breakfast. The sun was coming up and beaming light into the cabin. I caught my first glimpse of Africa, below.

So, asked Rahim, where do you plan to stay after we clear customs and immigration?

Well, Ive been corresponding with a student at Wits University who says I can always stay with her parents, but Ive got to figure out how to phone her after we land.

Oh, your first acquaintance in South Africa is a female, eh? Are you sure youre here to study?

Rahim, I could see, was a jokester. If I dont make contact with Fiona, I told him, Ill just find a youth hostel in town and crash there. Ive got an address of one in a place called Hillbrow.