Nelson Mandela was free. The ANC had been unbanned. The seeming speed with which this happened had caught many seasoned activists unawares. But excitement was tinged with uncertainty. An NIC memo to the Southern Natal Regional Interim Committee of the ANC, dated 10 May 1990, noted that as a result of visits to individual homes and formal and informal meetings to assess the ‘political mood’ among Indians, it was clear that ‘widespread fear and confusion’ existed in the community.

The memo cited the immediate reasons for this anxiety as the 1985 violence in Inanda and attacks on Indians in the transport hub of Warwick Avenue in Durban during 1989. The memo made special mention of NP propaganda about the consequences of majority rule for Indians, the perception that the ANC was responsible for countrywide violence, and ‘persistent inflammatory (anti-Indian) statements’ from Inkatha. The memo argued that due to the weak level of political organisation among Indians, ‘the absence of vigorous and decisive intervention by progressive forces’ would result in Indians ‘supporting an option (NP) that will bring about an end to apartheid and which at the same time addresses minority interests (defined as security)’. The memo called on the ANC's senior leadership ‘to directly address the fears and misconceptions’ which existed in the Indian community.

The memo sought to identify the common-sense views of the mass of Indians at this historical moment, and the basis for these. The memo was an honest recognition of the vast divisions that existed between South Africans, and of the NIC's inability to assuage the fears of the Indian community sufficiently to garner votes for the ANC. Clearly the violence between the ANC/UDF and the IFP, often fuelled by ‘third force’ elements linked to the apartheid state, impacted on the community, as many Indians lived cheek by jowl with Africans. However, there were other factors to take into consideration. The NIC was caught up in its own internal leadership battles. Moreover, as a result of detentions, bannings and involvement in ANC underground structures, the NIC's organic relationship with everyday Indian life was often distant.

While there was a close working relationship and friendship across race lines among many political activists, among ordinary people the effects of segregation, the Group Areas Act and other apartheid policies emphasised difference, which lent itself to anxiety over the future.