Harris Dousemetzis Livres

In the South African House of Assembly, on 6 September 1966, Dimitri Tsafendas stabbed to death Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. Afterwards, Tsafendas was declared to be a schizophrenic who believed a tapeworm lived inside him which controlled his actions, and that he had no political motive for assassinating Verwoerd. Pronounced unfit to stand trial, Tsafendas went down in history as a deranged parliamentary messenger. For fifty years, this story prevailed. However, this book now reveals the truth about Tsafendas; that he was deeply political from an early age. He was arrested numerous times, starting in Mozambique, the country of his birth. In Portugal, the security police opened a file on him in 1938, when he was aged only twenty. After the assassination, Tsafendas volunteered a series of incontestable political reasons for killing Verwoerd, but these, along with details of his political past, were never allowed to see the light of day. This book reveals the extent of the cover-up by South Africa's authorities and the desperate lengths they went to conceal the existence of Tsafendas's opposition to apartheid. The book exposes one of the great lies in South African history, that Verwoerd was murdered by a mad man. It also offers for the first time a complete biography of this extraordinary man.

The narrative centers on Dimitri Tsafendas, who assassinated South Africa's Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966, a pivotal figure in the apartheid regime. Following the murder, Tsafendas was deemed insane and unfit for trial, leading to a 28-year imprisonment marked by brutal treatment. This updated edition explores the complexities of his case, revealing the political implications and the injustices faced by Tsafendas, while also providing new insights into developments since the book's initial release.

The narrative centers on Dimitri Tsafendas, who assassinated Hendrik Verwoerd, the Prime Minister of South Africa, in 1966. Despite the political implications of his actions, authorities deemed Tsafendas insane and unfit for trial, leading to his 28-year imprisonment, the longest in South African history. His incarceration was marked by severe mistreatment. This updated edition includes new developments in Tsafendas' case, providing deeper insight into his life and the political climate of apartheid-era South Africa.