Sunday Times Literary Awards shortlist | Murder most foul: Chris Hani’s white-supremacist slaying

NON-FICTION

Criteria: The winner should demonstrate the illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power; compassion; elegance of writing; and intellectual and moral integrity.

The Plot to Save South Africa: Chris Hani’s Murder and the Week Nelson Mandela Averted Civil War by Justice Malala (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Johannesburg. Easter weekend. 1993. Chris Hani, the charismatic ANC leader, is shot and killed outside his home by white supremacist Janusz Waluś. Rookie journalist Justice Malala, then 22, was one of the first people at the crime scene, and he covered the growing chaos. Malala revisits the unforgettable events of those nine days.
Judges said: Meticulously researched, beautifully retold, and scrupulously fair in finding the heroes while naming and shaming the villains as South Africa teetered on the edge of the abyss, this is a vital — and timely — contribution to our memories of the past.

We asked Justice Malala a few questions about The Plot to Save South Africa:

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a “plot” as “a secret plan made by several people to do something that is wrong, harmful or illegal, especially to do damage to a person or a government”. Please elaborate on how the subject matter of your book subverts the notion that a “plot” is inherently harmful to a government specifically.

The subversion of the notion of a “plot” occurs in two ways. First, the idea of malevolent actors inherent in the title is a play on Philip Roth’s 2004 novel The Plot Against America. In Roth’s book, the US presidential election of 1940 is won, not by Franklin D Roosevelt, but rather by Charles Lindbergh, who espoused anti-Semitic views and was an admirer of Hitler. What world would we be in today if that had actually happened? Clive Derby-Lewis, Janusz Waluś and their associates plotted against South Africa for it to remain with the racist apartheid policies of the past, very much like the potential future envisioned in Roth’s novel. In their own sick way, they believed they were “saving” South Africa from Hani and Mandela. So the title is a conceit in that way. The second subversion of “a plot” is a “good” one: that South Africans of good conscience, when faced with the provocation of a catastrophic event such as Chris Hani’s murder, came together to stare down the warmongers and avert a race war. The good plot, the plot by the good people of our country, won over the malevolent one of Derby-Lewis and Waluś.

The book is written in “real time”, with the exact dates, times and locations of the events that occurred in the nine days of political unrest after Hani’s assassination. Why did you use this narrative structure?

There is huge merit in putting the events of that week under the microscope of political analysis. There is much to ferret out and many strands to pull. But there is another element to the story that appealed to me. As a child, I had limited access to books, but those I did come across were propulsive thrillers that grabbed you from start to finish. Much as I love political analysis, I also love stories, and I think a gripping narrative can be a gateway to truth. Right from the beginning, I recognised the huge potential for the “thriller” elements of this story: the horrible, malevolent bad guys; the high stakes; the good people; and, of course, the ticking time bomb of anger and hate in the country. The countdown to the Hani funeral is fraught, but also full of highs and lows.

If you were to ask many of the people who were around that week what they remembered of it, they would probably refer to Nelson Mandela saving the nation with his “white woman” speech. Putting the story in a timeline helped me realise there were, in fact, three speeches instead of one, and that the first was a dud. Stylistically, this narrative structure also underlined the sense of dread in the nation, as the situation became more fraught, with no clear answer as to what would come next.

You open every pivotal date with a Shakespeare quote, beginning with:
Easter Saturday
April 10, 1993
Murder most foul, as in the best it is,
But this most foul, strange and unnatural.
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5

Why did you include quotes from Shakespeare’s plays?

Like many South Africans, I was introduced to Shakespeare at school. It was, however, a confusing introduction, because the language was opaque, the plot didn’t get going as quickly as one’s young mind wanted, and teachers were always asking you what it all meant — without giving you any clear answer. Then in matric a wonderful young teacher went through Macbeth with us quickly, laying out the themes, twists, desires and drivers of actions — and it was almost as if every text I had read before then was opened up and explained afresh for me. Shakespeare is able to dissect and analyse much of humanity’s strengths and weaknesses — our foibles — in his works. I was amazed by how much he had already commented on almost every aspect of that week’s action: treachery, power, weakness, thirst for blood, ambition, love, and peace. He had said it all. We are merely walking in his footsteps. Shakespeare’s words also say something about our common humanity, about good and evil, and how it exists in all of us.

In your epilogue you write, “The murder of Chris Hani was an attempt to set black against white, to tip fury and fear into murder and mayhem. A country that had endured 45 years of formalised racism and segregation was just the right tinder for Derby-Lewis and Waluś’s racist fantasies. That week, South Africans chose a different path: peace.”

What does choosing peace above enmity say about our nation’s people?

I am as guilty as many other political journalists in South Africa in holding up our leaders, from Nelson Mandela to FW de Klerk, as the main and sometimes even the sole architects of our political transition. The truth is that there were numerous other factors and actors in play. In the streets of South Africa between 1985 and 1993, ordinary people were making huge political statements. There were hunger strikes, consumer boycotts, campaigns to end conscription, and many other actions that put immense pressure on the government to change. Similarly, in the week of Hani’s assassination ordinary people pushed for and got the forward movement in the negotiations that they wanted.

It’s a lesson for us all today that the people we abuse, the people whose taxes we plunder, are watching and can choose to revolt against the corrupt and the comfortable. The heroes and the main actors are not the ones with the grand titles — it’s the ordinary people. Those of our leaders who abuse them today need to remember that the ordinary men and women in the street are not fools. We serve and survive at their pleasure.

What impression do you want readers to take away with them after reading the book?

I want readers to remember several things about the book. First, we were once capable of political action that brought about positive change. In these days of huge corruption and selfish leaders, it is worth remembering this current iteration of leadership is not all we are capable of. We are also able to choose and be led by men and women of integrity and selflessness, leaders who resemble Chris Hani. Second, we get the leaders we choose. We must choose well, and we must learn to follow well (in other words, we must learn to recognise when leaders are past their sell-by date).

In what way do you think the book “illuminates truthfulness”?

In writing the book, I was hoping to bring to light certain aspects, some old and some new, of that intense, dramatic, fear-filled week. Most of my contemporaries and I lived through aspects of that week, but the whole incident was so much more complex and unknown. As a political reporter and commentator, I was very aware of how there were gaps in the story — how my memories intensified with respect to some parts of it and blanked out in respect of others. I didn’t write the book I set out to write. New facts, scenarios and truths, new documents full of new information, popped up and set me in different directions. I think, therefore, some truths we always took for granted are somewhat better illuminated — that I’ve shone a spotlight on some parts of the story, which will add to that palimpsest of knowledge we all still want from Hani’s tragic assassination. I hope the book can help keep a focus on the quest for truth, not just in respect of Hani’s murder, but with regard to the killings of so many others as well.