20–21 December 1991
CODESA negotiations begin
Representatives of political organisations and administrations met at the first CODESA plenary and opened a multiparty process for negotiating South Africa's constitutional transition.
View in timelineOn 20 and 21 December 1991, representatives of political organisations, national and homeland administrations met at the World Trade Centre in Johannesburg for the first plenary of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). The gathering widened the negotiating process beyond the earlier bilateral agreements between the government and ANC.
Most participants signed a Declaration of Intent committing themselves to a negotiated transition towards an undivided South Africa, equal citizenship, universal human rights, multiparty democracy and peaceful constitutional change. The IFP and Bophuthatswana government participated but declined to sign the declaration, while the PAC, AZAPO and Conservative Party remained outside CODESA. The participating parties also retained different positions on the transfer of power and the procedure for adopting a constitution.
Significance
CODESA established a national multiparty forum for negotiating the transition. It created working groups and a shared statement of broad principles, but the process later deadlocked amid disagreements over constitution-making, transitional power and continuing political violence.
Why it matters
CODESA expanded the government–ANC process into a wider convention and its Declaration of Intent recorded broad commitments to an undivided country, equal citizenship, democracy, human rights and peaceful constitutional change.