African Activist Archive

Contents: I. Background • II. Suspension of the ANC's Armed Struggle • III. The Internal security Act • IV. Definition of Political Offenses • V. Procedures • VI. Indemnity for Pro-Government Forces • Conclusions • This paper by the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law analyzes the Pretoria Minute and the working Group Report. On August 6, 1990, after 15 hours of negotiations, the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African government issued a joint statement known as the Pretoria Minute that expressed the acceptance by both parties of a report prepared by a bipartisan Working Group regarding the release of political prisoners and the granting of an indemnity. The Pretoria Minute also announced the suspension by the ANC of the armed struggle and a commitment by the government to end the State of Emergency still in force in the province of Natal and to consider repealing certain provisions of the Internal Security Act. The report discusses the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), the South African Communist party (SACP), F.W. de Klerk, banned organizations, the repeal of certain aspects of the Emergency Regulations, Nelson Mandela, the Groote Schuur Minute, violence, intimidation, indemnity for exiled South Africans, the South African Police (SAP), detention without trial, Joe Slovo, peaceful demonstrations, death squads, the South African military, the Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB), strikes, boycotts, the Black Lawyers Association, political offenses, Professor C.A. Norgaard, the release of certain Namibian prisoners, United Nations Security Council Resolution 435, township unrest, pro-apartheid groups, the vigilantes, extra-governmental white extremists, human rights, law and order, and the Human Rights Commission.

African Activist Archive

PAPER III: THE PRETORIA MINUTE AND WORKING GROUP REPORT OF AUGUST 6, 1990

UPDATE ON THE TRANSITION PROCESS

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