Former South African negotiators urge dialogue, strong institutions to counter polarization

Julia Carboni, director of the Ruckelshaus Center, opened the evening by linking the center’s collaborative mission to the life work of Bill Ruckelshaus and introduced two former South African negotiators who spoke about the country’s transition from apartheid to democracy.

Mohammed Baba, a former member of parliament and attorney who worked on the African National Congress negotiating team, described apartheid as an engineered system that assigned people to categories that determined schooling, work and movement. "It was about labor extraction," he said, outlining Bantustans, Bantu education and segregated urban planning as mechanisms that enforced inequality.

Rolf Meir, who said he had been a beneficiary of the system before becoming a negotiator, described a long personal shift from supporter to reformer. "It starts with talking to each other," Meir said, arguing that once opposing groups began sustained dialogue they could identify shared aspirations and design workable solutions.

Both speakers emphasized the critical role of civil society, faith leaders and young people in making negotiated outcomes durable. "It wasn't a top down approach," Baba said, crediting churches, civic groups and local leaders for doing the hard work of bringing communities together and building trust for new institutions.

Meir also highlighted the effect of international pressure, recalling the U.S. sanctions debate of 1986. "The United States passed the Sanctions Act in 1986 that really forced apartheid South Africa on its knees," he said, adding that he personally lobbied U.S. senators at the time and later conceded the sanctions helped create the conditions for negotiation.

Panelists urged U.S. civic leaders to draw three practical lessons: create sustained spaces for dialogue, invest in institutions that outlast elections, and incorporate broad civic participation into policy design. "It was the center that held us together," Meir said, referring to a political middle ground that marginalized extremes and enabled compromise.

Speakers also warned that democracy must be actively nurtured between elections and that social media presents new challenges to institutional trust. They urged scholars and civic actors to devise approaches that adapt democratic practices to changing technological and social conditions.

The event included a short overview of the Ruckelshaus Center’s civic-health programs, including a Washington Collaborative Elected Leadership Institute run with the UW Evans School and the Jackson Foundation, which the director said is currently supported by donations rather than ongoing legislative funding.

The session closed with the moderator thanking the speakers and the audience. There were no formal votes or actions taken at the event.