Volume 4 of the Road to Democracy in South Africa Abridged Edition series tells the history of the liberation struggle in the 1980s. The liberation movement took major strides that finally broke the backbone of white supremacist rule. By the close of the 1980s, the end was in sight and the apartheid government realised that it could no longer deny the voice of the people.

Unlike the bulky academic versions of SADET’s Road to Democracy, 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. What remains is the stark truth; the story of the dramatic 1980s that saw the mobilisation of the popular masses and the escalation of the ANC’s armed struggle inside the country. The decade also witnessed the birth of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

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