Harare Declaration sets out a path to negotiations

On 21 August 1989, the OAU Ad-hoc Committee on Southern Africa adopted the Harare Declaration. Developed from an ANC initiative and consultation with Frontline States, it described apartheid as incompatible with peace and set out a route towards a united, democratic and non-racial South Africa.

The declaration proposed a staged process. The government would create a political climate by releasing political prisoners, allowing exiles to return, unbanning organisations and ending repression. The parties would then suspend hostilities; substantive negotiations would address the replacement of apartheid with a democratic order; and an interim administration would supervise the transition to elections.

Significance

The declaration supplied an internationally supported framework against which the government's later reforms and the negotiating process could be measured.