Although Nelson Mandela declared victory in South Africa's first all-race presidential election two nights ago, Government Professor Nelson Kasfir said the outcome was obvious since March, when he visited the country.
Kasfir traveled to South Africa after he finished teaching on the Foreign Studies Program in Kenya to spend time with leaders of the African National Congress, who he said were experiencing some of the pre-election tensions.
"Things started happening in the sense of history being made in front of you," Kasfir said.
Kasfir, who stayed in South Africa from March 11-25, said he had never visited South Africa before "because it supported a regime that I disapproved of."
Kasfir said he stayed with friends who are high senior officials in the ANC and visited Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.
He said Mandela's victory was not a surprise, but that many South Africans were apprehensive about potentially violent side effects.
"The people we met were puzzled about how they were going to get through it all. Everyone knew what was going to happen [in the election] and in effect it had already happened," he said.
He said the main uncertainty about the election when he was there was "how the small pieces were going to fit in."
Kasfir said the ANC had essentially already been in power for the past six months through its participation in the Transition Executive Council. He said the new government will be an extension of that council.
"The election has great importance symbolically," Kasfir said.
He said he was not surprised the voting lines were so long and that it was conceivable that the nationalist party could have won.
"It was reasonable to suppose that the Nationalist power would not give up power lightly. You can see how the Nationalist party might have been able to construct a majority if you assume the white community would support the Nationalist," Kasfir said.
"You could say a number of Africans might have not liked the ANC," he added.
While he was in South Africa, Kasfir attended one of Mandela's rallies in a "colored community," the government's description of a community of mixed race or non-native and non-white citizens.
Kasfir said Mandela emphasized that the ANC was not going to take anything away from colored people when it instituted its affirmative action policies for indigenous African people.
But he said colored people strongly voiced their support for the National party and that violence could have "easily broken out."
Kasfir said after a few casual conversations he had with Afrikaners, he got the impression that "there's some fear that things will be taken away."
One couple who own a restaurant and had worked hard to build their business, said they were afraid it would be taken away when the ANC came to power, Kasfir said.
"Every house is its own fortress -- this is part of the society apartheid has created," Kasfir said.
Though he did not directly observe the kinds of violence that are reported in the papers, Kasfir said he was surprised at the level of technology of the weapons citizens used for defense against robberies.
"We had the sense then that the violence [reported] was exaggerated," Kasfir said.
But he said "it is a violent place. One of the jobs of the government will be to reduce the violence in the society by getting the guns out."
While Kasfir was in South Africa, two of the homelands, Bophuthatswana and Ciskei, which were created under apartheid, collapsed.
"It was unexpected because I knew they would cease to exist after the elections, but not before," he said. He said these events showed "the total bankruptcy of the government with its support for apartheid."
