1/. Twenty-seven years after #SouthAfrica’s miraculous first democratic elections, it’s easy to forget just how close the county came to civil war

I was working for the ANC from 1992-4

There were times - right up to Election Day - that it “seemed impossible until it was done.”

2/. With just weeks to go, violence in KwaZulu-Natal was escalating with the Inkartha Freedom Party (IFP) boycotting the elections

Well-armed conservative Afrikaner militias were mobilising

Tensions were mounting in the so-called “homelands” of Ciskei, QwaQwa & Bophuthatswana

3/. Two days before the elections, a car bomb in Jo’burg killed 9 ppl including ANC candidate, Susan Keane, & injured 92

The next day, 12 ppl were killed by bombs targeting black ppl in Germiston & Pretoria

All attacks bore the hallmarks of white separatist groups #FreedomDay

4/. On 28 March, 55 people were killed & hundreds injured as violence erupted in Jo’burg as IFP supporters protested against the elections

19 were killed as they marched on the ANCs HQ

But after intense negotiations & with just a week to go, the IFP agreed to contest elections.

5/. A year earlier, Mandela had pulled #SouthAfrica back from the brink of civil war after the assassination of Chris Hani

Ironically, his murder had the opposite effect of that intended, showing only the ANC could hold the country together. #FreedomDay https://www.vice.com/en/article/dpjnk7/the-assassination-of-chris-hani-almost-brought-south-africa-to-civil-war

6/. “The perks of govt are not appealing to me. What is important is what we do for social upliftment of the working masses of our country.”

#SouthAfrica would look very different had Chris Hani - Mandela's natural successor - not been assassinated

This was his last interview

7/. On 10 March, another key moment was the failed attempt by the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) to prop up the puppet govt of Bophutatswana, whose leader was refusing to participate in the election.

Front page photos of the shooting of three AWB members had a big impact.

8/. At midnight on election eve, I watched as the new flag was raised above parliament

I slept for a few hours before heading back to the office

After polls closed Mandela rprtdly told a friend:

“I should be jumping for joy but I just feel a stillness. There is so much to do”

9/. “Our deepest fear isn’t that we are weak. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence liberates others." (Pres. Mandela, 10/5/94)

10/. Just after Mandela was sworn in came a moment that still gives me goosebumps

Jets & helicopters flew low over the crowd

Instinctively we flinched, but then it dawned

The military - & the State - were no longer enemies of the people: they belonged to the people #FreedomDay

11/. I came home to UK soon after, but feel privileged to have worked alongside so many courageous people who sacrificed so much so that #SouthAfrica could be free

“Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive. But to be a part of it was very heaven” #FreedomDay https://www.newsweek.com/remembering-mandela-his-long-walk-freedom-showed-we-can-change-world-opinion-1027756