Description

A gripping and important The Guardian account of nine tumultuous days as the assassination of Nelson Mandelas protg by a white supremacist threatens to derail South Africas democratic transition and plunge the nation into civil war

Johannesburg Easter weekend 1993 Nelson Mandela had been released after twentyseven years in prison and was in power sharing talks with President FW de Klerk After decades of resistance the apartheid regime seemed poised to falluntil a white supremacist shot and killed Mandelas popular heir apparent Chris Hani in a last desperate attempt to provoke civil war

Twentytwoyearold rookie journalist Justice Malala was one of the first people at the crime scene And as he covered the growing chaos of the next nine daysthe protests and police brutality reprisal killings and calls for paramilitary units to get combatreadyhe was terrified the assassins plot might succeed

In The Plot to Save South Africa Malala masterfully Foreign Affairs unspools this political history in the style of a thriller alternating between the perspectives of participants across the political spectrum in a riveting kaleidoscopic account of a country on the brink Through vivid archival research and shocking original interviews he digs into questions that were never fully answered in all the tumult at the time How involved were farright elements within the South African government in incitingor even planningthe assassination And as the time bomb ticked on how did these political rivals work together with opponents whose ideology theyd long abhorreddespite provocation and their own failures doubts and fearsto keep their country from descending into civil war