The pre-election period - Women in the early 1990s

Members of the ANC and its ally's protest against the state sponsored violence in Natal. Cape Town. 1993. © Omar Badsha

By the time the 1980s drew to a close the revolt against the government, increased international pressure and the regime's counter-revolution of oppression had reduced the country to a state of anarchy. Violence escalated in the 1990-1994 period with more than 700 people dying violently in the first eight months of 1990. The economy was in shreds and there was still no real constitutional reform that would give the blacks any meaningful say in government. FW de Klerk realized that reform had to take place and in the March 1992 referendum, 68,6% of the whites who voted gave him the mandate to bring about changes.

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