W. Johnson and eminent South African sociologist and political scientist Lawrence Schlemmer, contributors Robert Mattes, Hermann Giliomee and Wilmot James write that the media opportunities ‘afforded by the forums were important in order to communicate the real symbolic message of the ANC’s accountability, representativeness and accessibility and rebuild its image as a “parliament of the people”’.7 Here, the leaders did not speak; instead they responded to questions from the representatives of the audience in an environment that facilitated democratic exchange.

Writing about the period, Johannes Rantete, in his account of the ANC and the negotiated settlement, observes that the election campaign was personalised ‘with much attention being focused on party leaders. De Klerk was eloquent and sharp but could not match Mandela’s heroic attributes which saw thousands of people flocking and stampeding to most of the gatherings he attended. Young and old wanted to see with their own eyes a man whose reputation in contemporary world history could be compared to none.’8

Knowing that there was a problem regarding voter literacy among the black majority, another legacy of apartheid, Mandela sought strategies to redress this problem, which might otherwise have posed a setback for the ANC.

‘We also engaged the masses in an active voter education campaign,’ he writes. ‘[I] organised some skilful personalities to help in this regard. One of them was Leepile Taunyane, then president of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa [NAPTOSA]. He replied that [I] was late, he and his colleagues in NAPTOSA had already started the voter-education campaign. We were tremendously inspired because he led a strong and disciplined movement, which had enough resources to wage a powerful campaign. We had made the same appeal to the South African Democratic Teachers Union, who had already taken the initiative also before we appealed to them to join. The ANC sought not to speak to the people, but to speak with the people.

‘I conducted the campaign as a member and as president of the ANC, having been elected to the latter position by the first national conference of the organisation after it was unbanned, which was held in Durban in 1991. We conducted mock elections as part of the voter-education campaign. Ten million people took part. This was very important, as in the actual election there were less than one per cent spoilt papers. This spoilt-paper percentage is in line with the performance in elections in democracies with developed economies with a high level of literacy.

‘The ANC conducted a positive campaign, focused on rebuilding, reconstruction and a better life for all without forgetting the past. We avoided negative campaigning, avoided attacking opposition parties. To the best of my memory, we never placed a single negative advert in the media.* The opposition, on the other hand, were primarily negative and kept attacking the ANC and its alliance partners.

‘As always,’ Mandela wrote, ‘we were mindful of the minorities in our questions about the future, at such times of great transition. Our movement had always been one concerned for all of the people of our country and we sent that message to the country during our campaign. People responded with enthusiasm.

‘We remember, for example, how a young woman from the coloured community, Amy Kleynhans, then the reigning Miss South Africa, joined us on stage during our campaign in Cape Town. She had earlier angered the then state president, F. W. de Klerk, because of her refusal to carry the national flag of apartheid during an international beauty pageant, confirming her allegiance to the new South Africa about to be born.

‘There were other such demonstrations of enthusiastic support. One young teacher from the community left his post to sing songs composed by himself for the campaign. This young man, John Pretorius, later recorded the song “Sekunjalo”, which he sang at so many rallies in the Cape during the election campaign.’

Energetic and danceable, this song has an urban beat with gospel traditions woven into the music. The refrain ‘free at last’ and its attendant lyrics are a joyful celebration of the end of tyranny and the dawn of freedom. Years later, during Mandela’s eightieth birthday celebrations, John Pretorius sang a duet of this song with Jermaine Jackson to ecstatic reception at a concert at Ellis Park Stadium.

‘As we have mentioned,’ Mandela writes, ‘everything was not of that positive and joyous scale. In KwaZulu-Natal we had to cope with the continuing political violence that cast a spell of gloom and doubt over the otherwise exciting prospects of democracy. We concentrated a lot of our time on the political situation in that province. On the one hand, we had to campaign for the election victory of our organisation, while at the same time it was our duty to address in a non-partisan way the fate of all of the people in the province. The political violence, no matter by whom it was being committed, was to the great damage of all South Africans. And as always in such circumstances, the innocent carried the brunt of suffering, hence our special attention to the then province of Natal.

‘Our election campaign did not always proceed smoothly.