Accord on Afrikaner self-determination

Accord on Afrikaner self-determination
Original title	Accord on Afrikaner self-determination between the Freedom Front, the African National Congress and the South African government/National Party
Ratified	23rd of April 1994
Location	Pretoria, South Africa
Signatories	Freedom Front African National Congress South African government/National Party
Subject	Recognition of the right on self-determination by the South African government and the African National Congress
Purpose	Creation of common ground for future negotiations about Afrikaner self-determination Ensuring of the participation of the Freedom Front in the 1994 general elections

The Accord on Afrikaner self-determination is a South African political accord that recognises the right of the Afrikaner people on self-determination. The accord was signed by the Freedom Front, the African National Congress and the National Party-led South African government on the 23th of April 1994.

During the negotiations between the South African (apartheid) government and the African National Congress to create a new democratic South Africa there was a lot of resistance among conservative Afrikaners. Their main political party - the Conservative Party - did not want the Afrikaners to lose political power in South Africa. In 1992 the South African government decided to call an end-of-apartheid referendum with the question whether the negotiations with the ANC and other parties for a new constitution should continue. During the campaign the National Party-led government swore that she would never accept a proportional electoral system, because this would mean that white minority (12% of the population) should lose all power to the black majority (74% of the population). The NP would only accept a form of power sharing. And a second referendum would be called to test the results of the negotiations among white voters. Ultimately, 68,7% of the white voters voted in favour for the continue of the negotiations.

In the last months of 1992 the NP-led government, the ANC and other important groups came to an accord to develop a new constitution. The parties agreed on 32 constitutional principals. These constitutional principals set out a proportional electoral system based on the principle of One man, one vote, instead of power sharing between different cultural groups in South Africa. Conservative Afrikaners were very dissatisfied with the outcomes of the negotiations. At the 25th of June 1993 - during the second round of negotiations for the interim constitution of 1993 - around 3000 supporters of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging stormed into the World Trade Centre in Johannesburg to disrupt the negotiations.

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