The Accord on Afrikaner self-determination is a South African political accord that recognises the right of the Afrikaner people on self-determination. The accord was signed by the Freedom Front, the African National Congress and the National Party-led South African government on 23 April 1994.
Background
During the negotiations between the South African (apartheid) government and the African National Congress to create a new democratic South Africa there was a lot of resistance among conservative Afrikaners. Their main political party - the Conservative Party - did not want the Afrikaners to lose political power in South Africa. In 1992 the South African government decided to call an end-of-apartheid referendum with the question whether the negotiations with the ANC and other parties for a new constitution should continue. During the campaign the National Party-led government swore that it would never accept a proportional electoral system, because this would mean that white minority (12% of the population) should lose all power to the black majority (74% of the population). The NP would only accept a form of power sharing. Ultimately, 68.7% of the white voters voted in favour for the continue of the negotiations.
In the last months of 1992 the NP-led government, the ANC and other important groups came to an accord to develop a new constitution. The parties agreed on 32 constitutional principals. These constitutional principals set out a proportional electoral system based on the principle of One man, one vote, instead of power sharing between different cultural groups in South Africa. Conservative Afrikaners were very dissatisfied with the outcomes of the negotiations. At 25 June 1993 - during the second round of negotiations for the interim constitution of 1993 - around 3000 supporters of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging stormed into the World Trade Centre in Johannesburg to disrupt the negotiations.
In late 1993 the African National Congress and the newly established Afrikaner Volksfront - which was an umbrella organisation of several right-wing Afrikaner organisations - negotiated about a bantustan (also called volkstaat) for Afrikaners around Pretoria. The ANC agreed to negotiate because she is frightened that conservatives in the (white) South African Defence Force would commit a coup d'état to maintain white rule in South Africa. Although the ANC and the Afrikaner Volksfront come to an agreement, the far-right in the Afrikaner Volksfront refuse to sign the agreement.
In the meanwhile the far-right in the Afrikaner Volksfront forced the Afrikaner Volksfront to boycott the general elections at 27 April 1994. At 26 February 1994 this leads to a rupture in the Afrikaner Volksfront, that consisted of an alliance between hardliners that did not want general (multi racial) election and moderates that want to establish a volkstaat before a general elections was held. The moderate Volkstaters led by general Constand Viljoen left the Afrikaner Volksfront and established their own party: the Freedom Front.
In the same time about one million Afrikaners refused to accept a new state structure in which Afrikaners would lose their political power. This could lead to permanent public unrest after the elections. Especially in the last weeks before the general election, the ANC was afraid of an coup d'état by conservative Afrikaners. At that time, the National Party refused to sign the final agreements with the ANC, because there was no agreement on amnesty for the members of the state security services of the Apartheid government. Therefore, the ANC continued to negotiate with conservative Afrikaners about a home land or volkstaat for Afrikaners. After the rupture of the Afrikaner Volksfront the ANC continued these talks with the Freedom Front. The ANC, Freedom Front and the NP-led government of South Africa came to an agreement on 23 April 1994.