Change in the Political System of Apartheid in South Africa and peace-building; Forgiveness or revenge? (1989-1999), Results for Iran

 For 46 years whites established the political system of race discrimination in South Africa and continuously reproduced it from 1948. The change of this system and transition to the democratic system during 1989-1999 is among the important events of the final decade of the twentieth century. The Institutionalized violence of the apartheid system looked infinite but the direction of changes and the establishment of de Klerk’s government (1989-1994) and Nelson Mandela (1994-1999) revealed the necessity for peace-building in the vengeance thirsty damaged society of South Africa. How did the peace-building became possible in this society with its transitional justice mechanisms? In order to find the reasons behind the political change in South Africa the present article makes use of Gidenz’s theory of structuration (structure interaction-functionality) emphasizes the hypothesis that peace-building in the transitional justice (permanent coexistence after peace) through highlighting “forgiveness instead of revenge” resulted in the transition from apartheid to the democratic government from 1989-1999. The findings of the study shows the role of leaders and agencies, the type of performance of the commission for truth and peace with the priority of damage compensation instead of punishment and choosing stable peace instead of realization of criminal justice.