I was reading a book on Swiss-South African relations, and in it, it talked about how it had apparently been a long standing idea of the top brass of the National Party for when the time for Democracy came, having it be patterned after the Swiss.
Is there any truth to this? Apparently the Swiss Government even sent people to help the process along, seeing it as an honour.
National Party president FW de Klerk favoured a "Swiss model" of a rotating presidency and government representing all parties, along with strong provincial authorities. It didn't get very far as the ANC was confident of overall majority support (1). A still more devolved structure was urged by Buthelezi's IFP, which dominated KwaZulu: even NP leaders questioned the desirability of "provinces which would have enjoyed almost independence with a very weak central government" (2).