THE PLOT TO SAVE SOUTH AFRICA

A focused study of a key moment in South African history when “people were prepared to set the country on fire to retain the apartheid system.”

In his latest, longtime South African journalist Malala, author of We Have Now Begun Our Descent, homes in on the days following the assassination of African National Congress leader Chris Hani by a right-wing fanatic in April 1993, a fraught time that would determine whether the nation would descend into more racial violence or attain a peaceful transition of power. As president of the ANC, Nelson Mandela was involved in ongoing discussions with F.W. De Klerk and his National Party government. However, with the assassination of Hani, the chief of staff of the military wing of the ANC, the talks were disrupted, and violence seemed imminent. Malala, a well-respected journalist, was a rookie reporter at Johannesburg’s English-language daily, the Star, and he was right in the middle of the political upheaval during those perilous days when the country tottered on the brink of civil war. In this page-turning account, the author moves chronologically, beginning with the shooting of Hani outside his Dawn Park home by a pro-apartheid extremist, aided by conservative parliamentarian Clive Derby-Lewis. They believed that making peace with “terrorist” Mandela was a form of “selling out” Whites and Afrikaners. Despite the angry backlash that erupted in the Black townships, suppressed violently by the government forces, Mandela repeatedly appealed for peace. A night vigil for Hani involved numerous important speakers, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mandela; the same was true at Hani’s funeral, but no South African government officials attended. The assassins, while linked to pro-apartheid organizations, were not proven to have been tied to a wider conspiracy. After Hani’s death, however, the Transitional Executive Council set the date for the first multiracial election in South Africa. The author includes a cast of characters, list of relevant organizations, and a timeline.

A suspenseful nonfiction thriller featuring valuable firsthand observation.