Props to Peter Gabriel on this, I remember it well.

Count me among those who think the apartheid regime knew exactly what they were doing by killing folks like Chris Hani Steve Biko, etc..
They understood that the moderate voices of the ANC posed a lesser danger among the resistance movements of that time..
And so spared Mandela and the remaining ANC leadership for future negotiations. It work!

😆..btw, the guy who assassinated Chris Hani was a right-wing Polish guy😲🫢😆