|
|
1989
|
|
August
14: An embittered President
Pieter
W. Botha abruptly resigns. He is eventually replaced by party
leader and education minister Frederik W. de Klerk.
October
15: South African
nationalist leader Walter
Sisulu and five other black anti-apartheid activists are freed
after each spent more than 25 years in prison for plotting to
overthrow white-minority rule. |
1990
|
|
February
02: President Frederik W.
de Klerk lifts
a 30-year-old ban on the country's main black opposition group,
the African National Congress.
Nelson Mandela in 1998.
(Reuters)
| 11:
Black nationalist leader Nelson
Mandela walks out of prison, a free man after more than 27 years
in confinement.
August
07: The African
National Congress announces that it will immediately
suspend its 29-year armed struggle against white-minority rule
in South Africa. |
1991
|
|
February
01: President Frederik W.
de Klerk, proclaiming the final dismantling of "the cornerstones of
apartheid," announces
plans to repeal laws that have guaranteed white ownership of 87
percent of the land and entrenched rigid segregation of the races.
December
20: President Frederik
W. de Klerk proposes that South Africa's black majority join the
white minority in forming an elected interim government and
parliament to run the country. |
1992
|
|
December
19: President Frederik W.
de Klerk acknowledges
for the first time that senior members of South Africa's security
forces had engaged in illegal activities – probably including
assassination – against political targets.
|
1993
|
|
April
10: Chris Hani, leader of
South Africa's Communist Party, is assassinated
outside his home.
October
15: Nelson Mandela
and F.W. de Klerk are
jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to
dismantle the country's apartheid system of racial separation.
November
18: South Africa's
white minority government and black political leaders approve a new,
interim constitution designed to eliminate institutionalized
racism.
|
1994
|
|
April
26: Black and white South
Africans vote
together for the first time in a historic national election. The
ANC would eventually win 62.7 percent of the vote, making Nelson
Mandela the new president of South Africa.
October
06: New South
African President Nelson Mandela brings cheering members of Congress
to their feet during an address
in Washington. |
1995
|
|
February
14: President Mandela
presides over the inauguration of South Africa's first
Constitutional Court.
March
27: President Mandela
fires
his estranged wife, Winnie, from his cabinet but makes clear that
her dismissal does not neccessarily mean the end of her political
career.
July
19:President Mandela
signs
into law a bill creating a "truth commission" to uncover human
rights abuses committed during South Africa's racially separatist
past. |
1996
|
|
 |
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
(File
photo)
| March
29: A Supreme Court judge
declares the 38-year marriage of South African President Nelson
Mandela and his estranged wife, Winnie, officially
dissolved.
May
09: Deputy President
Frederik W. de Klerk announces that he and his white-led National
Party will
quit South Africa's post-apartheid unity government to become a
true opposition in Parliament.
August
22: South Africa's
last apartheid president, F.
W. de Klerk, apologizes to the nation's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission for the "pain and suffering" caused by the disgraced
system of racial separation.
23: The ruling African National Congress admits
to South Africa's truth commission that it tortured and executed
renegade militants in its war on apartheid.
December
11: Nelson Mandela
signs the nation's first post-apartheid
constitution into law. |
1997
|
|
December
05: Accused of involvement
in murder and torture committed by her former bodyguards, Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela publicly defends herself, telling South
Africa's truth commission that all allegations against her are
"fabrications."
Thabo Mbeki. (Reuters)
| 17:
According to his previously announced timetable, South African
President Mandela steps
down from his post as head of the ruling African National
Congress. In his farewell speech to the ANC, he accuses the white
opposition and the white media of trying to thwart post-apartheid
reforms. Within days, Thabo Mbeki takes over as party leader.
18: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela withdraws
from the race for deputy president of South Africa's ruling party.
|
1998
|
|
July
18: President Mandela marries
his longtime companion, former Mozambican first lady Graca Machel,
on his 80th birthday. |
1999
|
|
January
23: A controversial
opposition politician is assassinated
in the troubled KwaZulu-Natal province. Hours later, 11 people are
killed and eight wounded in a revenge attack on members of the
ruling African National Congress.
March
03: President Nelson
Mandela announces
June 2 as the date for South Africa's second democratic
election, a vote that will mark his retirement from office.
June
02: Millions of voters
turn out for the all-races
election. ANC presidential candidate Mbeki appears to be the
heavy favorite.
16: Mbeki is sworn in as South Africa's second
post-apartheid president. |
