The South African government also accepted the principle of linkage; it proposed the concept at the UN 7th Plenary Meeting on 20 September 1986 (the Question of Namibia).

The UN.... Calls upon South Africa to desist from linking the independence of Namibia to irrelevant and extraneous issues such as the presence of Cuban troops in Angola as such linkage is incompatible with the relevant United Nations resolutions, particularly Security Council resolution 435 (1978);..."[4] The Angolan and United States governments started bilateral talks in June 1987 while the civil war continued.

"[This quote needs a citation] After refusing direct talks with Cuba, the US agreed to include a Cuban delegation in the negotiations, who joined on January 28, 1988.

"[7][8] According to the book 32 Battalion by Piet Nortje, during this campaign South Africa introduced its new secret weapons, the G5 and G6 howitzer guns.

The guns were used to halt the Cuban advance to the south and raised the specter of yet another unaffordable arms escalation between two medium-sized military powers.

According to David Albright, South Africa believed that the discovery of preparations for a nuclear weapon test at the Vastrap facility created an urgency amongst the superpowers to find a solution.

[11] During the negotiations, the South Africans were asked to release imprisoned ANC activist Nelson Mandela as a sign of goodwill, which was denied.

Namibia was to gain independence on terms that South Africa had set out, including multi-party democracy, a capitalist free-market economy, and a transition period.

The South African government rejected that premise until the fall of the Soviet Union and SWAPO assured that it would support a multi-party democracy.

South Africa held onto Namibia's economic port of Walvis Bay for an additional 18 months until it was assured that SWAPO would respect the newly founded constitution and the principle of a multi-party democracy.

As part of the Tripartite Accord, the African National Congress, the Marxist-leaning guerrilla/freedom movement conducting guerrilla attacks in South Africa to end apartheid, would remove its bases from Angola and no longer received support from the Angolan MPLA.

Later, the ANC also dropped its Marxist philosophy and was accepted into the wider South African Democratic Movement, which supported political change in the country.