“The aim of this book is to learn from the remarkable period in our history – the few years from 1989 to 1998 – during which South Africa experienced a political transition. We will be asking about the lessons that emerged from these years – and will try to answer the question, “How did we do it?” While the question of how South Africans
made peace continues to be asked around the world, South Africans themselves are often too busy working on the next episode in their
country’s journey to pause and ask how we actually got from where we were in 1989 to where we are now, more than twenty years later. Our aim is more than gaining knowledge about the past. We also want to learn lessons from our past, and apply these lessons to current challenges. For a society with the challenges that we have, the lessons
of compromise and creativity which emerge from our transition from apartheid to democracy are of great importance and value. Every day in many different ways, small and large, the transition continues, and with it, the demands for compromise, creativity and co-existence. “
