South African Lebanese style-arrangement?

What possibility is there of South Africa hammering out an racial-confessionalist style agreement in the 1980s or 1990s? I understand this is something that the NP was bargaining for in CODESA but by that time they'd lost most of their ground? What sort of conditions would need to exist for such a deal to come into place? I'm imagining an arrangement that has a white State President, and an black Prime Minister. Perhaps the Parliament would be 50% black, 30% white, 15% coloured, and 5% Asian. A sort of extension of the prior minority-representation arrangement.

Also, might increasing the number of Portuguese retornados and Rhodesian migrants help?
 
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Ancientone

Banned
A rotating presidency and entrenched White rights was the NPs initial position at CODESA, however as the talks were taking place against a background of continued unrest the NP eventually caved in and gave the ANC/SACP everything that they wanted. The only concession was the 5 year coalition of a government of National Unity. The system of a list-based, non-constituency vote with proportional representation with no voter's roll was probably one of the worst deals that could have be made, however, politicians are interested only in power and the perks that go with it and the Nats involved in CODESA mostly kept their jobs for a further five years and those that were left after two parliaments joined the ANC---so much for principles!

The ANC has been structured on the lines of a strict Stalinist party since the 1950s (although the SACP maintains a distinct identity the two parties are inseparable and the SACP provides a home and a cover for White members of the ANC). No system that did not lead to absolute power for the ANC would have been unacceptable and even if temporarily adopted would have been subverted.
 
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So I might imagine a deal would have to be hammered out in the 1980s, when South Africa was still relevant in the Cold War and could count on Anglo-American support?
 

Ancientone

Banned
So I might imagine a deal would have to be hammered out in the 1980s, when South Africa was still relevant in the Cold War and could count on Anglo-American support?

Quite so, but the NP leaders were not called flat-earthers for nothing. They were so isolated from reality and current events that the world passed them by. They were wedded to the Homeland (Bantustan) idea right up to 1990.
The Tricameral Parliament that provided a sort of fake representation for Coloureds and Indians was introduced in 1982 and that caused a split in the NP with the right wingers forming a new party--or rather reviving a 50 year old party that looked back to the 19th Century for its ideas.
If you didn't live through it you will never understand the crashing stupidity of the National Party and its leaders for most of the last fifty years.
Had Voerwoerd not been killed in 1966 and his original plan for the investment in the Homelands been implemented or had Smuts' plan for the "open door" post war immigration of ten million Europeans been carried out, then perhaps something better could have been developed.

NB regarding the Portugese in SA. A Portugese party stood in the 1994 election--they got 3000 votes out of 19 million.
 
Tri-cameral parliament was tried. Did not work.

The best that came out of it was a bottle of red wine (collectors, not many of them) labelled "House of representatives" that I have on display. can't remember which chamber that was. The red wine was not particular good, btw.

Ivan
 
one

The House of Represenitives was the chamber for people of mixed background Coloureds. The House of Assembly remained for Europeans, and The House of Delgates for asian Indians
 
I highly doubt such a terribly undemocratic system would last very long, if implemented when tensions were so high in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
 
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