On 6 August 1990 the South African government and the African National Congress, ANC, reaffirmed their commitment to the Groote Schuur Minute (the result of a similar meeting in Cape Town in May 1990) and extended the consensus to include several new points. The most significant of these was point 3:
"In the interest of moving as speedily as possible towards a negotiated peaceful political settlement and in the context of the agreements reached, the ANC announced that it was now suspending all armed actions with immediate effect. As a result of this, no further armed actions and related activities by the ANC and its military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe [MK] will take place."
It was subsequently made clear that the MK had not, as a result of the minute, disbanded and the locations of arms caches were not disclosed.
The suspension of the armed struggle had been a fundamental block on the negotiations for the end of white rule and the creation of a new South African constitution, and the ANC's unilateral concession enabled the process to continue.
Read the text of the Pretoria Minute.
