
Breakthrough
The Struggles and Secret Talks That Brought Apartheid South Africa to the Negotiating Table
Zebra Press
Will be published approx. on 30. August 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-77609-647-3 (ISBN)
Description
When President F.W. de Klerk announced the unbanning of the liberation movements on 2 February 1990, he opened the door to negotiations that would end apartheid and pave the way to democracy. But how did this moment come about? What power struggles and secret talks had brought the country to this point? Written by two ANC veterans who were close to these events, Breakthrough sheds new light on the process that led to the formal negotiations. Focusing on the years before 1990, the book reveals the skirmishes that took place away from the public glare, as the principal adversaries engaged in a battle of positions that carved a pathway to the negotiating table. Drawing from material in the prison files of Nelson Mandela, minutes of the meetings of the ANC Constitutional Committee, the NWC and the NEC, notes about the Mells Park talks led by Professor Willie Esterhuyse and Thabo Mbeki, communications between Oliver Tambo and Operation Vula, the Kobie Coetsee Papers, the Broederbond archives and numerous other sources, the authors have pieced together a definitive account of these historic developments. While most accounts of South Africa's transition deal with what happened during the formal negotiations, Breakthrough demonstrates that an account of how the opposing parties reached the negotiating table in the first place is indispensable for an understanding of how South Africa broke free from a spiralling war and began the journey to democracy.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
South Africa
Publishing group
Penguin Random House South Africa
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
16 pages of photographs
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77609-647-3 (9781776096473)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Mac Maharaj | Z. Pallo Jordan
Breakthrough
The Struggles and Secret Talks that Brought Apartheid South Africa to the Negotiating Table
E-Book
09/2021
1st Edition
Penguin Books (South Africa)
€16.49
Available for download
Persons
Mac Maharaj became active in the struggle in 1953 when was a student at the University of Natal (Non-European Section). Joined the underground SACP in 1958. Founder member of the anti-apartheid movement in the UK. In December 1977 The ANC appointed him Secretary of the Internal Political and Reconstruction Department. He served on the Revolutionary Council and its successor the Politico-Military Council and was elected to the NEC at Kabwe. He relinquished all his positions in the ANC and remains an ordinary member.
Z. Pallo Jordan has been a political activist from his student days. The ANC sent him to Luanda, Angola, in 1977 to revive Radio Freedom. He served on the ANC's Constitutional Committee established in 1986 and was its liaison with the NWC and the NEC. He entered Parliament in 1994, serving in various cabinet positions. He resigned from the NEC of the ANC and Parliament in 2014.
Z. Pallo Jordan has been a political activist from his student days. The ANC sent him to Luanda, Angola, in 1977 to revive Radio Freedom. He served on the ANC's Constitutional Committee established in 1986 and was its liaison with the NWC and the NEC. He entered Parliament in 1994, serving in various cabinet positions. He resigned from the NEC of the ANC and Parliament in 2014.