THEPOLITICALTRANSITION
outside the hotel, and at the signing ceremony he refused to shake hands
with Mandela and de Klerk. Afterward, de Klerk tried to make excuses for
Buthelezi's behavior, but Mandela disagreed and publicly lambasted de
Klerk. 35 Nevertheless, both de Klerk and Mandela were determined to get
substantial negotiations going, and they met privately several times to
work out ways and means. Following these meetings, in late November
leaders of twenty political organizations laid down ground rules for the
talks. A Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), composed
of twelve-member delegations from every participating party, was to meet
under the chairmanship of two judges (one Afrikaner, the other Indian).
CODESA was to write an interim constitution, in terms of which elections
would be held for a Constituent Assembly, which would write a final con-
stitution in accordance with principles laid down in the interim document.
Constitution-making
CODESA opened on December 20, 1991,in the World Trade Centre out-
side Johannesburg. It was strikingly different from the National Conven-
tion of 1908-9, when thirty white men created the Union of South Africa
out of four British colonies, with a flexible constitution that enabled the