Apartheid Spies and the Revolutionary Underground

249 pages. Temps de lecture estimé 3h7min.
Addresses the complex interplay between the apartheid state’s security services and its radical opponents, unveiling hidden struggles and offering unique insights into South Africa's liberation history.This is the first book-length account of the assassination of Jeanette and Katryn Schoon on 28 June 1984, ordered by Craig Williamson, a member of the security service and apartheid spy. Jeanette Curtis Schoon and Craig Williamson first met in 1973 at Wits University. Schoon was part of a network of white activists fighting apartheid; Williamson had successfully infiltrated the student movement and rose within its ranks. He held positions of trust, first within the National Union of South African Students and later, after pretending to ‘flee’ the country, as an office-bearer of the International Universities Exchange Fund in Sweden, which helped fund many South African activists in exile. The book uncovers how the lives of a group of white activists intersected with and were impacted by the undercover security police and their operations both within and outside of South Africa in a multitude of ways. Williamson received amnesty for his role in the Schoons’ murder, among other crimes. This book shows the limits of the TRC process to deliver social justice and render healing from South Africa’s apartheid past. That justice has not been served to the Schoons remains a tragedy in this story of struggle against apartheid.Preface Acknowledgements Acronyms and abbreviations Timeline Introduction Prologue: The Assassination, 1984 Part 1 From Student Radicals to Post-student People, 1972–1976 Chapter 1 Student Radicals Chapter 2 Post-student People Part 2 Cover Stories and Undercover Stories, Botswana & Geneva, 1977–1980 Chapter 3 Cover Stories Chapter 4 Undercover Stories Chapter 5 Exposing Craig Williamson Chapter 6 The Damage is Done Part 3 Furthering the Aims, 1980–1983 Chapter 7 Arrests and Detention Chapter 8 The Trials Part 4 Forced Asylum, 1981–1984 Chapter 9 No Asylum from Her Majesty Chapter 10 A Kind of Asylum Epilogue: Amnesty and Justice, 1995–2007 Bibliography Index