An excerpt from Spy: Uncovering Craig Williamson

On 17th August 1992, at a ceremony to mark the tenth anniversary of First's assassination, Nelson Mandela said that when he received the news in Pollsmor Prison, he felt shattered and completely alone. 

'My grief was all the more poignant because I knew both of the men injured in the same blast. In my mind's eye I saw Pallo Jordan as I had last seen him, when, during 1948, I spent a few days in his home. Similarly, I could see Comrade Braganca talking intensely to me when we met during my stay in Morocco in 1962. But most clearly I could see Ruth: Ruth engaged in intense debate while we were at Wits University together; who uncompromisingly broke with the privilege of her wealthy background; who readily crossed the racial barrier that so few whites were, or still are, able to cross; a woman whose passion and compassion enabled others, including those from liberal and conservative perspectives, to play their part. 

'It is a small consolation that her memory lives beyond the grave, that her freedom of spirit infuses many committed to an open society, rigorous intellectual thought, courage and principled action. 

'Ruth spent her life in the service of the people of Southern Africa. She went to prison for her beliefs. She was murdered because of her acute political acumen combined with her resolute refusal to abandon her principles. Her life, and her death, remains a beacon to all who love liberty. 

'The assassination of Ruth First was not only a personal tragedy of immense proportions, it was part of a pattern of a systemic elimination of leading opponents of apartheid. Ten years later this commemoration is most appropriate, because it is only now that information is beginning to come out about the death squads and the crimes committed in defence of apartheid. 

'Our country cries out for peace. But this will be difficult to achieve until there is a recognition of the real causes of the violence, and the disbanding of those forces at the centre of what is in reality a low-intensity war against the people.'