Thirteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

The dialectics of history took another turn when, South Africa succeeded in berthing a new democratic society in a transition that did not involve an external third party mediator and without shedding any blood, which is the general characteristic feature of apartheid South Africa. The society through its negotiations and institution of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, eased out apartheid for the first multi–racial general election in which power shifted from the white minority to the black majority with the inauguration of Dr. Nelson Mandela as the first black president of democratic South Africa. This work seeks to look at the mediation processes from a theoretical perspective. Our concern in this paper is to derive a blueprint for the sustainability of societal peace especially in conflicts that have hitherto been tagged as intractable. Hence, looking back, South Africa may not have gotten it all right, but qualitatively, a major stride had been achieved in the de-escalation of the south African apartheid conflict, particularly with the dismantling of apartheid against all odds. South Africa is just one among a number of other intractable conflicts in the world. The fundamental questions to ask is that what elements, principles, theories, and narratives whether accidental or by design cumulatively accounted for the successful de-escalation of the South African intractable conflict? This is with a view towards harnessing them together as a blue print for the de-escalation of similar intractable conflicts on the globe. A close study of the South African conflict, using Critical Discourse Analysis, within a philosophical purview, reveals that a set of theoretical paradoxes may underlie the peace process in SA. Teasing out these for posterity, sustainable societal peace and stability is what this paper is all about.