On the Brink

On the one side lay a descent into political anarchy, on the other a painful process of negotiation and compromise. This exhibit documents the struggle that resulted. Television monitors screen footage of the main political actors' responses to the events that took place between February 1990 and the elections in April 1994. Also screened are scenes of the background violence against which negotiations took place.

During this period, 14 000 South Africans died in political violence — several times more than had died in the previous four decades. Some of the decommissioned weapons used in these conflicts form part of the exhibit.