Thesis submitted to fulfil the requirements for the Degree Philosophiae Doctor in the Faculty of Humanitie (Department of History) at the University of the Free State. Summary: The study analyses the political violence that beset South Africa during the 1980s and examines critically the impact that violence had on enhancing or impeding South Africa's transition from white minority rule to black majority rule. This study fucuses on the continual interplay between actions and reactions that arose between the main protogonists during the political upheavals of 1984-1988 and explains how these actions and reactions interacted to forge a polical catharsis, thus paving the way fo a negotiated settlement