APARTHEID SPIES AND THE REVOLUTIONARY UNDERGROUND

336pp., paperback, Wits University Press, Johannesburg, 2024

ISBN: 9781776149018

Billy Keniston on the assassination of Jeanette and Katryn Schoon on 28 June 1984, ordered by Craig Williamson, a member of the security service and an apartheid spy. Schoon was part of a network of white activists fighting apartheid; Williamson had infiltrated the student movement and rose within its ranks to become Vice-President of NUSAS. Williamson was granted amnesty by the TRC.

"Though I already knew its basic outlines, I was riveted by this book, from beginning to end. Meticulously researched answers filled with profoundly piquant detail, it serves as a well-crafted reminder that those of us in the underground struggle, with all our heroism and all our frailty, were real people, as were those who, with all their bitter racism, set out to kill us." Albie Sachs, former judge of South Africa's Constitutional Court

"Few scholars have gained so much access to a wide range of stories of heroes, victims and infiltrators alike. The intertwined lives of political prisoner Marius Schoon, assassination victim Jeanette Curtis Schoon, and apartheid spy Craig Williamson make for a tragic yet inspiring tale of resistance and betrayal - and its price." Alex Lichtenstein, Professor, Department of History, Indiana University 

William (Billy) Keniston teaches in the History department at Cuesta College, California. He is the author of Choosing to be Free, a biography of Rick Turner.