Things Fall Apartheid

by henk lustig

photos by greg marinovich

At last month’s Shell House rally in Johannesburg, an IFP supporter lies dead beside ANC headquarters. The victim’s shoes have been customarily removed to help him along his way to the afterlife.

South Africa’s first apartheid-free presidential election is finally here, and to punctuate just how important this shit is, citizens have started a civil war so they can kill one another in its honor. Political analysts say Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) will take 70 percent of the 1994 vote, leaving 20 or so other parties to grapple over the remaining 30: For violent whites there is the Afrikaner Resistance Movement; for frustrated Zulu nationalists there is the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP); for the simply hopeless there is the outgoing National Party. But enough of that facts-and-figures crap. Let’s get to the murdering!

boerewors

veld

spear

The ANC has had consistent firefights with Zulu loyalists, who hope to abolish the current constitution in its entirety. Here a Zulu chief fires a handgun at ANC supporters during a march outside Durban.

ANC and Communist Party supporters flee as police launch tear gas and shoot at mourners in Soweto. Government soldiers are increasingly outnumbered in the numerous violent outbreaks, and with the election coming up in the next month, there are few signs that whatever party takes the presidency will be prepared to handle what follows.