The door slammed shut on apartheid this month as non-white South Africans went to the polls for the first time.
Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress was elected with an overwhelming majority. The National Party came in second with about 20 per cent of the vote. It was the National Party that designed the apartheid system that excluded non-whites from power for decades and restricted them to a tiny portions of the country. Apartheid was designed after officials of the National Party visited Canada in the 1940s to study the way aboriginal peoples were dealt with here.
Dozens of Canadian observers were in the country to make sure the vote went smoothly. Among them was Andy Orkin, a long-time legal advisor to the Crees, in case you’re wondering where our boy’s gone.
