The election was conducted under the direction of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), and marked the culmination of the four-year process that ended apartheid.

As widely expected, the African National Congress (ANC), whose slate incorporated the labour confederation COSATU and the South African Communist Party (SACP), won a sweeping victory, taking 62 percent of the vote, just short of the two-thirds majority required to unilaterally amend the Interim Constitution.

The new National Assembly's first act was to elect Nelson Mandela as President, making him the country's first black chief executive.

In 1948, the newly elected National Party government in South Africa began to institute apartheid, an institutionalized system of racial segregation that placed sociopolitical dominance in the hands of the European-descended white minority.

Under the Population Registration Act, 1950, all South Africans were categorised by the government as White, Black, Coloured (mixed) or Indian.

[3] In 1983, P. W. Botha's government approved a new constitution, which implemented a Tricameral Parliament, with additional houses representing the Coloured and Indian populations.

On 2 February 1990, de Klerk made a speech at the opening of Parliament in Cape Town, in which he unexpectedly announced his intention to unban anti-apartheid groups such as the ANC, SACP and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), to release political prisoners such as ANC leader Nelson Mandela and requested a process of negotiation with the anti-apartheid opposition.

On 6 August, the government and ANC issued a further joint declaration, known as the Pretoria Minute, in which the ANC and its armed wing, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) agreed to the suspension of armed activities, in exchange for the government lifting of the State of Emergency (then only active in Natal Province), further release of political prisoners from September 1990, and a review of certain provisions of the Internal Security Act.

[12] On 30 November 1991, 19 organisations announced that the first meeting of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) would be held in Johannesburg on 20 and 21 December 1991, in order to discuss constitutional arrangements.

[17] In response to the failure of negotiations, the ANC announced a campaign of "rolling mass action", encompassing public protests and strikes in order to pressure the government to meet its demands.

The talks culminated in the official Record of Understanding between the ANC and the government on the 26 September, recognizing agreements reached between the two in meetings.

[25] After initially announcing a boycott due to constitutional disagreements, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) reversed its decision on 19 April, days before the election.

In 1997, on the adoption of the final Constitution, the Senate became the National Council of Provinces; its political makeup remained the same, but members were divided into permanent and special delegates, as described in the following table.