Unisa Press

The Road to Democracy in South Africa – Abridged Version Vol 4

Author: South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET)
ISBN: 978-1-86888-784-2
Number of pages: 223
This book is not available in electronic format

About the book

Volume 4 of the Road to Democracy in South Africa Abridged Edition series tells the history of the liberation struggle in the 1980s. The liberation movement took major strides that finally broke the backbone of white supremacist rule. By the close of the 1980s, the end was in sight and the apartheid government realised that it could no longer deny the voice of the people.

Unlike the bulky academic versions of SADET’s Road to Democracy, the Abridged Edition series is much shorter; it is quicker and easier to read. The footnotes, the lengthy quotations, and overwhelmingly intricate detail have been removed. What remains is the stark truth; the story of the dramatic 1980s that saw the mobilisation of the popular masses and the escalation of the ANC’s armed struggle inside the country. The decade also witnessed the birth of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

The names of authors of the Road to Democracy in South Africa Abridged Edition series have been removed from each chapter but theirs is the credit for researching and creating them. SADET acknowledges the sterling work by all these international scholars.

This Abridged Edition series should be read by every South African. The hope is that others on the African continent and elsewhere in the world will find much of interest in its pages. After all, the history of the liberation struggle in South Africa is one of Africa’s greatest success stories

Table of content

Preface ix

List of acronyms xv

Chapter 1

The crisis of the garrison state 1

Chapter 2

The African National Congress and negotiations 17

Chapter 3

The ANC’s internal underground political work in the 1980s 33

Chapter 4

The ANC underground, armed actions and popular resistance in

Pietermaritzburg and the surrounding Natal Midlands townships 51

Chapter 5

The ANC underground and armed actions in Northern Natal 65

Chapter 6

The ANC underground and armed actions in Southern Natal 75

Chapter 7

Hidden histories of the Eastern Cape underground 89

Chapter 8

The struggle in Port Elizabeth: A view from the northern areas, 1979–1990 105

Chapter 9

The United Democratic Front in Cape Town: 1983–1986 123

Chapter 10

The UDF political resistance and local struggles in the Vaal and West Rand townships in the 1980s 135

Chapter 11

The UDF in Lebowa and KwaNdebele during the 1980s 151

Chapter 12

Bophuthatswana in the 1980s and the UDF in the Western Transvaal 167

Chapter 13

Resistance and repression in the Northern Cape 179

Chapter 14

Activist networks and political protest in the Free State: 1983–1990 191

Chapter 15

Resistance and conformity in the Qwaqwa homeland: 1975–1990 203

Chapter 16

The South African Congress of Trade Unions and labour struggles 215 in the 1980s

Chapter 17

Trade union unity summits and the formation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions: 1980–1990 227

Chapter 18

The arts in the 1980s 239

Chapter 19

Attitudes towards feminism among women in the ANC: 1950–1990 251

Chapter 20

The ANC’s armed struggle in the 1980s 263

Chapter 21

The South African Communist Party in the 1980s 305

Chapter 22

The Pan Africanist Congress’s exile politics: 1980–1990 315