After the increased pressure and resistance against Apartheid in the 1970’s and 1980’s the National Party government towards the end of the 1980s recognized that it could no longer hold out and a process was started because of the confluence (coming together) of various events that culminated in the first democratic elections of April 1994 and the transition to a new order in South Africa. Although a full-blown civil war was averted, it was not without considerable bloodshed and violence and was the product of lengthy negotiation and compromise. The following presentation summarizes the key events and looks at the way in which South Africans tried to come to terms with the past.