A documentary made from personal accounts of South Africans who were involved and or affected by the 1992/1993 violence in the black townships of Katlehong , Thokoza and Vosloorus in the East Rand Gauteng and in Hammersdale, Imbali, and other areas in Kwa-Zulu Natal (South Africa).
News and commentary on the resignation of Mr PW Botha from his position as Nationalist party prime minister after he felt that the Cabinet does not respect his decisions. Botha was replaced by Mr FW De Klerk who then met with the Zambian president Mr Kenneth Kaunda. Interviews with Benjamin Pogrund, Prof Albert Venter, Prof Tom Young and Mr Murphy Morobe of the United Democratic Front.
Stemmet and co-author Riaan de Villiers bring some of the most compelling secrets to light. Among others, it reveals that the covert collaboration between Mandela and the last NP government went way further than is generally known, and included an attempt by Mandela to broker a deal between the apartheid regime and the ANC in exile prior to his release. It also reveals that F.W. de Klerk made Mandela an offer that, if accepted, would have fundamentally changed the latter's role in the South African transition. Prisoner 913 casts new - often startling - light on the hidden dynamics behind one of the most important events in South Africa's political history."
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.
The author's memoir reflects the journey of a fellow traveller through a certain period of time - it is not about an individual but about the journey. Jacobs Dawie's journey will resonate with some, and perhaps not with others. The memoir connects with the fields of history that he ended up traversing. There is both humour and pain, two vital ingredients of life. An honest memoir should draw a smile as well as a tear.
The photographs taken by Dr Khulu Mbatha from the time the ANC was unbanned and Nelson Mandela released, and throughout the negotiating process, inspired this exhibition.