Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

8 • AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESSIt should be noted that the legitimacy of the ends sought by theAfrican National Congress and the heinous nature of the apartheidit fought are matters logically distinct from the questions of the legitimacyof the tactics elected by the ANC to achieve its ends andto fight apartheid. The African National Congress, like the Sinn Feinof Ireland, can be regarded as a primarily political entity, while itsarmed wing, like the Irish Republican Army, may be studied as amilitary phenomenon and assessed accordingly. Therefore, the terroristactions attributed to the ANC are analyzed under the headingof Umkhonto we Sizwe.The African National Congress obtained a majority of votes forthe National Assembly of the transitional South African regime on26–29 April 1994, which in turn elected ANC leader Nelson Mandelapresident on 9 May 1994. The ANC again won a majority vote inthe 2 June 1999 National Assembly elections and then elected ThaboMbeki president and successor to Mandela, who chose not to run forreelection. The ANC has therefore been the governing party in SouthAfrica since the first truly democratic elections were held in 1994.During this period, however, the National Truth and ReconciliationCommission conducted a review of the acts of terrorism by boththe former apartheid regime and the various nonstate and antistategroups, including actions by the ANC. On 29 October 1998 the Commissionpublished findings in a 3,500-page report that revealed theextent of the previous apartheid regime’s involvement in state terroragainst opponents of the regime, including members of the ANC, aswell as the ANC’s own involvement in terrorism directed against itsopponents, both in the apartheid government and in rival oppositiongroups, and its use of repression against its own members and otherblack South Africans. The ANC was cited for torturing and executingprisoners in its military camps in Angola, for targeting civilians aswell as members of the military forces, and for failure to control theviolence of its own activists. During the postapartheid era, sporadicviolence has continued between supporters of the ANC and those ofrival parties, such as the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party.Following the 1994 and 1999 elections, the ANC controlled seven ofthe nine federal provinces of South Africa. After the dissolution of theconservative and Afrikaaner-based New National Party in 2004, membersof that party effectively merged with the ANC, which won controlof West Cape Province and KwaZulu-Natal Province after the 2004