The future indirect result of the conference was South African government talks with Nelson Mandela and his eventual meeting with P. W. Botha in 1989.
Later in 1986, Slabbert and Breyten Breytenbach met on Gorée Island of Dakar in Senegal and decided that the city should be the location of the conference.
[6]: 4 The conference was opened by President Abdou Diouf and attended by his cabinet and members of the diplomatic community and then an address was given by Danielle Mitterrand.
[6]: 5 Four major topics had been agreed upon and the delegates had submitted the papers prior to conference and had been viewed by the ANC and they would respond to them after their presentation.
[6]: 5 The delegates in their presentation expressed their concern about violence in South Africa and its impact on civilians while the ANC members outlined why they had begun an armed struggle when all other peaceful strategies to bring about racial policy change in South Africa had failed and that attacks on soft targets was not a policy and that control over its armed cadres in the country was not always possible.
[6]: 5 It was clear to the delegates during the discussions that the ANC was prepared to negotiate with the government but that certain preconditions would have to be met which included the release of political prisoners and the unbanning of banned organisation's in the country.
[2] A ferry trip was then organized to the Gorée Island and they visited the Maison des Esclaves and its museum in remembrance to the Dutch slave trade in West Africa.
[7] No news conference was held by the delegates, having been banned by the police and they were escorted via a back entrance from Jan Smuts International Airport.
[13] The ruling National Party condemned the talk, worried about the legitimacy the conference gave to the ANC and the government controlled South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and Afrikaner newspapers were critical.