Author(s): Peter Harris

History

1987, Pretoria. Four young black men have just been arrested for a horrific string of political murders. There's no doubt that they're guilty of everything they're accused of - and more. But in a society riven by brutal repression and racial tensions, are they assassins or freedom fighters? Peter Harris is the lawyer called upon to defend them and, as he constructs his case to save them from the death penalty, he comes to understand the violence they encountered growing up in the townships and the chain of events that led them to join the ANC, undergo training at Zuma's camps in Angola, and return to their homeland to execute some of the apartheid regime's most notorious commanders and collaborators. In gripping prose, Harris intercuts the story of their trial with flashbacks to the squad's operations to reveal a campaign planned with cold-blooded brilliance and carried out with deadly efficiency. A Just Defiance is both a high-stakes courtroom drama and a fascinating a tale of men driven to extremes for an ideal. It paints a picture of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. Of people with unwavering commitment to their cause; and of a mother who never loses hope. This is a story of the foot soldiers, and of the terrible price they paid.