The Assassination that Ended South African Apartheid
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The assassination of Chris Hani was a pivotal moment in the dismantling of South African apartheid. On the 10th of April, 1993, he was shot dead as he returned to his home in a quiet suburb of Johannesburg. Negotiations between Nelson Mandela's party and the ruling apartheid government had stalled, and the country was as close as it had ever been to civil war. The murder of Nelson Mandela's heir apparent forced the negotiators back to the table, where they would finally set a date for South Africa's first democratic election. But who exactly was Chris Hani? And why was his death such an incendiary event? Dan is joined by Justice Malala, a South African political commentator and author of the book The Plot to Save South Africa, to give us his account of this crucial figure in South African history.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history here. |
| 0:03.4 | 30 years ago on the 10th of April 1993, I remember watching my TV, I remember watching the |
| 0:09.3 | evening news. |
| 0:10.3 | And we heard a tragic story from South African, which one of the leading anti-apartheid |
| 0:15.2 | figures, Nelson Mandela's heir apparent Chris Harnie, was assassinated by a Polish immigrant |
| 0:22.5 | to radicalized conservative South African. |
| 0:26.6 | He was shot at extremely close range and died instantly. |
| 0:30.2 | Like that other great political assassination of Archie Kfransferdnand in 1940, it almost |
| 0:34.8 | threw an entire region of the world into war. |
| 0:39.6 | Everybody involved from the clerk to Mandela, to other people, said that that's as close |
| 0:43.6 | as South Africa got to civil war. |
| 0:46.8 | There was enormous unrest and anger for frustration among the black community and among the white |
| 0:53.4 | South Africans. |
| 0:55.0 | There was a danger that could have provoked a reaction that could have seen slow moves |
| 1:00.0 | towards a multirational democracy stopped. |
| 1:04.6 | It came very close to all-out violence. |
| 1:08.1 | One of the reasons it didn't was because of the remarkable leadership of Nelson Mandela |
| 1:11.6 | and to a setting extent, FW Declure, the white president of South Africa. |
| 1:15.4 | Mandela gave one of his finest speeches on television that night. |
| 1:18.7 | He said he's reaching out to every single South African black and white from the very |
| 1:22.5 | depths of my being. |
| 1:24.6 | He talked about the cold-blooded murder of Chris Hane. |
... |
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