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Martin J. Murray: The revolution deferred: the painful birth of postapartheid South Africa . xvi, 272 pp. London: Verso, 1994. £11.95.

Bringing together scholarly sources and media coverage, Martin Murray has provided a detailed, informative and compelling account of the events over the decade leading to South Africa's first democratic election. It is imperative reading as much for those who are concerned with South Africa's future as for those concerned with its past. For the blow-by-blow account of apartheid's demise also serves to reveal the extent to which many of the forces for a fundamental break with the inequalities and inequities of the past have been dissipated. Hence the title—The revolution deferred. Murray's subtitle—The painful birth of postapartheid South Africa—is equally apt. For the white elite has been all too reluctant to hand over any aspect of their hold over economic and political power. This is true both of the neo-fascist Afrikaners and of politicians, government officials, and the liberally minded captains of industry and finance. The only differences in this respect are in what they have to lose and the lengths to which they are prepared to go to defend it. As the elections drew close, white supremacists bombed and killed as a last act of defiance against the inevitable. Yet, as Murray amply demonstrates, this random and futile violence was merely the tip of an iceberg that all the rest were only then prepared to condemn. The protracted negotiations before the election, and earlier, had seen a bund eye and supporting hand turned towards organized white violence through the police and armed and secret services. In addition, financial and training support by the apartheid government was provided to black opposition to the ANC to undermine the latter's bargaining and organizational strength, with Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party to the fore as the regime's favoured fomenter. The violence that has ensued has taken on a life and rhythm of its own, intricately and deeply entrenched within the segregated landscape of South African society and the struggle for power, privilege and survival at each and every level. Ultimately, the National Party came to a settlement despite the success of this divideand-prevaricate strategy as its own political support began to wither—it was satisfying neither liberals nor racists amongst the white population by prolonging negotiations. But the negotiations themselves were fundamentally characterized by an intense centralization of the political process, even if hastened and pressured by the mass action on the streets and the violence in the townships. The process of coming to a settlement for a government of national unity, both in principle and in its details, was one in which all but a few were effectively excluded from active participation. Nor is it possible to doubt, as Murray documents, that huge compromises were made on both sides, even though from very unequal starting points. In particular, the wealth and privileges of the white population have been left untouched—a heavy price to pay for limited democratization in which monopoly power over the economy and secure employment and working conditions for the civil service have been guaranteed. Given the devastation of the economy over the past decade, the new government's prospects of room for manoeuvre in providing the basic needs of the majority, and hence social stability, remain bleak. Yet, this situation must be compared with a decade ago when the apartheid regime was running a strategy of partial reform for a minority and repression for the majority. The passage over the decade to democratic elections seems to have been unimaginably fraught with dangers and difficulties. It is not only luck that has brought about this outcome. The alliance between the ANC, COSATU and the SACP— and its commitment to a unified South Africa, to tactical violence where necessary, to nonracialism and to democratic principles—have all been crucial, and are too easily taken for granted, even if not fully realized in practice. These principles had to be fought for and won, both against the apartheid regime and amongst its opponents. None the less, the extraordinary and troublesome passage to democratic elections should not blind us to the limited progress that has been made in the journey to eradicate the heritage of apartheid. For the cost of victory has been high, not only in the struggle itself but also in the political and economic conditions that have been inherited. The prospects for fundamental change remain positive but confined to the long term. And there is the nagging doubt that, but for a few blacks in government and business, it is whites who have gained the most, if only they are prepared to abandon the most extreme and overt forms of racial prejudice. It is Murray's merit to have opened up these issues, if not to have resolved them. That is for the future to decide, which will in turn cast new light on the transition to democracy in the context of what the majority is able to achieve for itself. The tortuous passage to South Africa's first democratic election, the pain, fragility, and joy in avoiding major civil war, should not delude us into ignoring what has been sacrificed along the way nor into exaggerating what has been more broadly achieved.