Sarafina Leleti Khumalo is a teenage student who idolizes Nelson Mandela, who is currently serving life imprisonment for conspiracy and treason against the apartheid government. She dreams of Mandela leading a free and just South Africa, and she longs to play him in the upcoming school play.
At school, a weary John Kani as the School Principal assigns Mary Masembuko Whoopi Goldberg to lead prayer songs to help keep order and prevent further riots. Meanwhile, the police press the principal to blame the students for the violence, pointing to fires in several schools, a claim the principal does not fully believe. During lunch, staff debate who is really fueling the unrest, with Mary suggesting juvenile delinquency while the students work to hide their activist feelings to avoid punishment from the adults.
During rehearsal, Sarafina envisions a hopeful ending in which Mandela is freed and leads the country toward a brighter future. After school, Crocodile Dumisani Dlamini leads a gang of students in a bid to resist the government’s heavy-handed taxes, but they are forced to scatter when the authorities move in and a riot erupts.
In a white household where her mother works, Sarafina speaks of a craving for freedom, something her activist father always wanted before he died a hero. Her mother, practical and wary, worries that daydreams contradict their place in apartheid. Meanwhile, an injured Crocodile seeks shelter at Sarafina’s home after a brutal encounter with the police.
At Mary’s house, Mary explains to Sarafina that her husband Joe rarely uses his gun to defend their home, underscoring the precarious balance of safety and fear in their lives.
The next day, Mary denies teaching children communism to the police, while Sarafina and Crocodile shame their classmate Guitar Sipho Kunene for betraying them by telling his suspicions to Constable Sabela, a confession that reveals how officials manipulate informants to justify harsh treatments. Word spreads that a new teacher has been introduced to replace the previous one, and this instructor attempts to rewrite history by praising a fictionalized Russian invasion, a move the students reject, expelling him from the classroom. The police respond with warning shots to scatter the crowd, and the celebration of learning quickly turns to tragedy as several students fall.
At the funerals for Crocodile and the others, a priest warns of the price paid for arrogance and for denying the right of the native people to shape their own country. The protests swell into a race riot after the police push back, and the rebellion grows as students build large barricades from old furniture to defend their homeland. The SADF eventually tears down the barricades with tanks and jets, capturing those who remain alive.
During Sarafina’s interrogation, a prison warden reveals that Mary was killed by the police to keep her quiet and warns that the same fate could await Sarafina if she doesn’t conform to the authorized syllabus. With the warden’s approval, the interrogations turn brutal, aiming to break the protesters with physical and psychological torture. In the final act of fear, Sarafina confronts rats in a cage, the warden hoping this terror will crush her resolve; she pleads for mercy for her friends, and the guards release her.
Back home, Sarafina’s mother finally apologizes for a hurtful remark and pledges to support her daughter’s dream of freedom in any way she can. After a discussion about the school play’s venue with Guitar, Sarafina leads the cast as Mandela. The performance becomes a triumph, and Mandela’s real-world release in 1990 marks a turning point that, a few years later, helps bring South Africa back toward a more hopeful future.
