1994 – The Bloody Miracle

As we celebrate South Africa’s twenty-years-young democracy, it’s easy to forget how the miracle of the rainbow nation could have just as easily never happened. Rewind to 1994 to a country on the brink of civil war: Chris Hani had just been assassinated, the AWB was mustering it’s forces, a proposed military coup was being plotted between unlikely allies and the country burned with inter-racial and inter-party violence. The conflict seemed certain to derail the already fraught discussions between Nelson Mandela’s negotiators and the outgoing apartheid government. A free and fair election seemed impossible. For the first time, victims, bystanders, key-players and conspirators are brought together in a new truth commission, a forensic examination of our remarkable present. But more than anything, 1994 – The Bloody Miracle reminds us just how crucial it is to understand our history if we are ever to move forward into an enlightened future.