JOHANNESBURG : Big Week in S. Africa
South Africa will pass several milestones this week on its long and bumpy road to democracy and black majority rule.
The multiracial Transitional Executive Council will hold its first meeting today in Cape Town, giving blacks their first formal chance to help run the government. Although the council’s powers remain to be tested, it is supposed to oversee government operations and create a “level playing field” for national elections next April.
Most of the 21 members will be familiar faces; they just finished drafting the country’s first democratic constitution and bill of rights. Barring last-minute snags, that document, in turn, will be ratified before Christmas by the last all-white Parliament.
On Friday, Nelson Mandela, the former political prisoner who is likely to be the country’s first black president, and Frederik W. de Klerk, the Afrikaner scion who is likely to be the last white chief executive, are to collect the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
