Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [84]-90)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 330-341).

Thesis (Ph. D. (History))--Rhodes University, 2006.

Bibliography: leaves 120-126. / The perspective of this dissertation is one grounded in taking an option for the poor and the oppressed in the South African context. Ultimately, this perspective is a theological belief. The perspective is thus that of an explicit choice against apartheid and for social justice. This choice is made on the basis of a social analysis of the South African context. The attempt to write this dissertation from the perspective of the poor and the oppressed is unlikely to succeed completely. As a privileged white, the perspective of the author cannot be fully identified with that of the poor and the oppressed in South Africa. Nonetheless, the attempt is made to write this dissertation from a liberating perspective.

This dissertation studies the interchange between political theatre and postwar political trials. I argue that to an extraordinary extent, theatre history in this period is inextricable from trial history. Through close archival study of mid-century theatre productions including Bertolt Brecht's 1954 production of "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" and the fifteen simultaneous premiere productions of Peter Weiss's "The Investigation" in 1965, I show how directors and playwrights looked to legal trials in order to develop and articulate theories of epic and documentary theatre, and how this new theatre in turn sought to effect justice in ways that trials alone could not.

Universiẗat, Diss.--Köln, 2006. / Literaturverz. S. 5 - 33.

In 1981 the apartheid military initiated a chemical and biological warfare (CBW) programme (code-named Project Coast). The programme, terminated in 1993, was aimed at developing novel irritating and incapacitating agents for internal and external use, covert assassination weapons for use against apartheid opponents, and defensive equipment for use by South African Defence Force (SADF) troops in Angola. The CBW programme was driven by a single individual, Dr Wouter Basson, who reported to a military management committee (the Co-ordinating Management Committee) which comprised a select group of high ranking officers. Practical and financial oversight of the programme was weak which allowed both for the abuse of programme funds and for senior military officers to deny knowledge of aspects of the programme. The biological component of Project Coast was conducted in violation of the commitments of the South African government to the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BTWC). While the state’s commitment to the BTWC was one of the factors considered when initiating the programme, it was not a sufficient constraint to prevent the development of the biological weapons programme, but rather influenced its structure such that the programme could avoid national and international detection. Despite efforts to conceal the military front companies where the chemical and biological warfare (CBW) research and development was undertaken, evidence presented in this thesis shows that the United States had sufficient information about the programme to have been aware of its existence. Yet, it was only in 1993, on the eve of the democratic election in South Africa, that any attempt was made by the US administration to pressure the government to terminate the programme. This thesis considers the factors which influenced the decision to develop Project Coast; the structure and nature of the programme; the motivations of scientists to become involved in the programme and remain involved; the use of chemical and biological agents against opponents of the state, and the factors which influenced the termination of the programme on the eve of the first democratic elections in 1994. It also considers the nature and exent of international support, both tacit and overt, for the programme and argues that the failure of Western nations to call for the termination of the programme before the early 1990s was a function of political expediency and indicates a significant weakness in the ability of international agreements to constrain the development of such programmes.

The Rivonia treason trial started on October 9, 1963, the same day that former Cape Town coloured singer Danny Williams made front page headlines by marrying a white girl in London. Those were the days when apartheid, not as “reformed” as it is today, was rigorously applied by the National Party government. Love, sex and marriage across the colour line were forbidden. Crooner Williams, 31, then riding the crest of the pop wave with his ballad “Moon River”, took his vows with Bobbi Carole, who married him against the wishes of her parents. Williams, fearing persecution, told an interviewer he would not be welcome in South Africa again. But most prominent by far on the front page that day was the Rivonia treason trial. A report from Pretoria — following the style of the times — said: “Eleven men — four whites, one Indian and six Natives — went on trial in the Supreme Court here today before Mr Justice Quartus de Wet (Judge President of the Transvaal) on charges of sabotage and of offences under the Suppression of Communism Act and of contravening the Criminal Law Amendment Act.” / Supplement to The Argus, Wednesday February 7 1990 / Exclusive Part 2