Author Description

This is a detailed study based on extensive archival research on the role and functioning of the South African state in relation to the various political opposition movements in South Africa. The book covers the period from the time of Union in 1910 and the establishment of the ANC in 1912 to the early 1950s with the growing entrenchment of the apartheid state. The book is important for the way it examines the development of a white settler state and the various mechanisms it adopted to co-opt, neutralise as well as suppress political opposition. It is of major interest to scholars of African politics, state-building in the post-colonial context and African resistance movements.