Calls for a federal system in South Africa’s transition

From a very learned discussion on federalism, published by the Indiana University:

In South Africa’s transition the calls for a federal system were held up as a possibility by three small forces: a small group of intellectual leaders interested in the benefits of power-sharing as a contribution to ethnic and racial stability after apartheid; the Inkataka Freedom Party in Natal, which called for confederal like association, and right-wing white supremacists who saw a federal South Africa as a blueprint for continued white-rule in some areas, even with a freely associated white Volkstaat within black-ruled South Africa. The majority African National Congress (ANC) interests, on the other hand, opposed a federal state with some vigor because it became the catch word for diluting or negating the long struggle for nonracial majority rule. Also to ANC divided would continue regional disparities that were contrary to the social justice and economic equity agenda of the ANC, and a federal state was regarded as “Bantustan homeland” government all over. These issues contributed to a South African transition that included nine rather weak provincial governments, where the center maintains effective control.

Simeon, Richard and Christina Murray. 2001. “Multi-Sphere Governance in South Africa,” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 31:4(Fall): 65-92.

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