NEGOTIATORS in the peace process must be a "special breed" and look after the next generation, not the next election, according to a senior negotiator in the South African peace settlement.
Mr Leon Wessels of the National Party, who is deputy chairman of the South African constituent assembly, said that politicians focused constantly on their majorities and the next election and needed support to help them move forward.
At the end of a three day visit to Ireland with two other South African parliamentarians, Mr Wessels told a forum at the Glencree Reconciliation Centre in Co Wicklow that there were simple lessons to be drawn from the negotiating process.
Everybody has to claim ownership and form a loyalty to the process as if it were their own. "Forget about the outcome. A legitimate process will give a legitimate outcome."
Gen Constand Viljoen, the leader of the Afrikaner Freedom Front Party, said that change was traumatic for his people but it was inevitable. The main aim of change is how to coexist peacefully, he said.
To him, disarmament was a "red herring". It is, he said, "not something very important. You can rearm in a month or two." What was important was a commitment from all parties to peaceful negotiations.
South Africa's Minister for Transport, Mr Sr Mac Maharaj, stressed that he could only outline the South African experience. Before the ANC went into negotiations they had crafted a blueprint with certain preconditions, including releasing political prisoners, unbanning the organisation, and negotiating a suspension of hostilities. He said the hostilities disappeared in the process without being formally suspended, because "the process has its own dynamic".