Volume 6 of the Road to Democracy in South Africa Abridged Edition series tells the crucial period from the unbanning of the liberation organisations in 1990 to the triumph of South Africa’s first democratic elections in April 1994. The events detailed in this volume move beyond 1994 to discuss the aftermath of the elections; the on-going violence in areas such as Natal and the PWV region; and how South Africans of all political persuasions adjusted to the new dispensation and worked together to devise the 1996 Constitution that has received worldwide recognition as one of the most equitable and praiseworthy of its kind.

Other significant liberation struggle themes such as the struggle for non-racial sport, and the role of black students, that were woven into the tapestry of the struggle, have been given recognition in this final volume of the first phase of the Road to Democracy project.

Unlike the bulky academic versions of SADET’s Road to Democracy in South Africa, the Abridged Edition series is much shorter; it is quicker and easier to read. The footnotes, the lengthy quotations, and overwhelmingly intricate detail have been removed.

The names of authors of the Road to Democracy in South Africa Abridged Edition series have been removed from each chapter but theirs is the credit for researching and creating them. SADET acknowledges the sterling work by all these international scholars.

This Abridged Edition series should be read by every South African. The hope is that others on the African continent and elsewhere in the world will find much of interest in its pages. After all, the history of the liberation struggle in South Africa is one of Africa’s greatest success stories.