On April 10, 1993, over the Easter weekend, the then most popular ANC leader Chris Hani was assassinated at his Boksburg home.
The country teetered on the edge of a full-scale civil war. It required Nelson Mandela going on live national television to call for calm and point out that it was a patriotic white woman who had the presence of mind to record and report the killer’s vehicle.
Janusz Walus was arrested within an hour of Hani’s murder.
It is said that Mandela became the de facto president of South Africa on the day of his televised address. Millions had mobilised all over the country. There was a seething anger. This anger had to be managed and channelled. This was the final crisis that led to the announcement of elections on April 27, 1994.
I start with this episode in our history to demonstrate the critical importance of leadership which could identify a calamitous crisis and seize it to move our country forward; and how a single dramatic and tragic act changed the course of history but not in the way that the perpetrators had intended. We were blessed with exceptional patriotic leadership.
Constitutional State
We adopted our widely admired Constitution in 1996.
