The right leaders at the right time, and luck, were the chief factors in moving from apartheid to majority rule in South Africa, a leading figure in the process has stated in a lecture at Stormont.
Northern politicians, academics, business people and others interested in the peace process heard Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert recount how through risk-taking, skilled leadership, and good fortune a settlement was achieved.
But Dr van Zyl Slabbert, who played a significant role as one of many brokers in the South African process, declined to draw absolute parallels between South Africa and Northern Ireland.
As the former British foreign secretary, Lord Owen, who instigated the lecture, said yesterday: "Ireland is unique. There are no parallels and there will be no imported solutions. Nevertheless, objective dispassionate evaluation of international experience can only be helpful."
Dr van Zyl Slabbert said adversaries begin to negotiate if they jointly perceive their conflict to be unresolvable by any other means.
The lecturer stressed the vital importance of the leadership of Mr De Klerk and Mr Mandela in overcoming obstacles. He said that for De Klerk, who made the key move in opening formal negotiations with reference to only a handful of people, it was a "lonely" and courageous act.
"It gives the lie to the conventional wisdom that a leader must first prepare his party and supporters for an event such as this, before he precipitates it," he said.
Mr Mandela "displayed magnanimity of spirit after 27 years in prison that overwhelmed everyone. He soothed the fears of the white minority; he calmed the expectations of his own supporters; he became an international celebrity overnight, and showed extraordinary qualities of statesmanship.
"So, how did we manage in South Africa? We had the right leaders at the right time, who understood a problem in the same way, under conducive circumstances. And we were lucky. And I wish that you will find yours [luck] sooner rather than later."
He also referred to the principle of sufficient consensus, which applies in the Northern talks. It means that progress can be made if the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP, the main representatives of unionists and nationalists, can agree on crucial issues.
This factor is causing some tension at the talks in that Sinn Fein fears the UUP wants to exploit it to exclude republicans from the most sensitive of the negotiations.
The lecture was part of a series dealing with international perspectives of the Northern peace process. It was organised by the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool, of which Lord Owen is chancellor, and sponsored by Independent Newspapers and the charity Humanitas.
