#5 Chapter Four - Detention

Loading player...

As a young man, South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa was among the 70,000 who were jailed, without trial, by the Apartheid Government, In this Chapter, biographer Anthony Butler revisits a little remembered fact of how, in 1974/5, Ramaphosa was put into solitary confinement for 11 months. And explains how this experience changed the man who was to make such a huge impact on his nation.

Season 1 / Episode 5 17 Aug 2020 English Read by Alec Hogg South Africa Government · History

Other recent episodes

Chapter 16 - BC: Negotiations, 1984 to 1991

The road to talks had been long and winding. Throughout the 1980's, powerful forces pushed by leaders of the ANC and the NP towards negotiation. By the time FW de Klerk seized the state presidency in late 1989, there had been a wide variety of contracts between liberation movement leaders…

Season 1 / Episode 18 1 hour

Chapter 15 - ANC Secretary General

As a result of Ramaphosa's skilful management of the release and reception of Robben Island prisoners, he was now something less of an ANC outsider. He was still just a trade union leader with a limited UDF base, regarded as a 'Johnny-come-lately' by many exile and Robben Island grandees. Yet,…

Season 1 / Episode 17 38 min

Chapter 14 - By Mandela's side

At the end of the 1980's, popular unrest swept the country. In reaction, the besieged National Party (NP) desperately used state coercion to contain a growing crescendo of protest. Many of its leaders now recognised that a negotiated settlement, on its own terms, was the only way to avert disaster.

Season 1 / Episode 16 27 min

Chapter 13 - Becoming ANC

In this chapter, Cosatu was widely and immediately recognised by liberation movement exiles as a triumph. Resolutions adopted at the inaugural congress - including demands for the withdrawal of troops from townships, the release of political prisoners, the unbanning of illegal movements and parties, and the imposition of economic sanctions…

Season 1 / Episode 15 53 min

Chapter 12 - Domestic opposition

In this chapter, while the developments suggested that a change of regime would one day become inescapable, organised political opposition was required to close down the National Party's avenues for evasion and delay. In this 1980s endgame of the struggle against apartheid, domestic rather international actors played the decisive role.

Season 1 / Episode 14 35 min

All episodes