The Rise and Fall of Apartheid: A recount of South Africa's struggle
In America, it was called Jim Crow. In South Africa, the term was apartheid: strict racial segregation enforced by law that began in the late 1940s and early 1950s and didn’t end until, under tremendous pressure from the international community, South African leaders decided apartheid had to go.
That happened on June 17, 1991: 35 years ago Wednesday.
Apartheid Begins
APARTHEIDBEGINS
May 26, 1948
With the election of the National Party, apartheid — Afrikaans for “separateness” — becomes official policy.
July 8, 1949
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act goes into effect, banning marriages between “Europeans” and “non-Europeans.”
Dec. 17, 1949
The country’s Black-supported opposition party, the African National Congress, calls for a militant campaign against apartheid. Among those elected to leadership positions: 31-year-old lawyer Nelson Mandela.
July 7, 1950
The Population Registration Act becomes law, requiring all South Africans to be registered as white, Black or “Coloured” — the latter being a multiracial mix or also “other,” including Indian. That same day, Parliament passes the Group Areas Act, requiring various racial groups to live in designated areas only — essentially separating business and residential areas by race. Supporting laws required nonwhite residents to carry passbooks to prove where they lived and worked and banned sexual relations between races.
A Black South African resident shows off his government passbook. UC San Diego.
March 21, 1960
Black activists organize a protest against the use of passes. Police fire on protesters in Sharpeville, killing 69 and injuring 180.
July 1960
In the wake of Sharpeville, Mandela forms a military organization within the ANC — Umkhonto we Sizwe, or MK — with the aim of conducting a sabotage campaign against infrastructure targets. MK will make its first attacks in December.
Dead and wounded are left after the police's massacre of protesters in Sharpeville, South Africa, on March 21, 1960. Photo from Media 24.
Jan. 9, 1962
Mandela leaves South Africa — without the required government permission or a passport — and travels to Europe to raise support for the struggle and to Ethiopia and Morocco to receive military training. Upon his return in August, he’s arrested, put on trial and sentenced to five years in prison.
July11, 1963
Police raid a farm in the town of Rivonia that MK has been using as a meeting house. They arrest key leaders and, that fall, put them — along with Mandela, already in prison — on trial for sabotage. The defendants become known as “the Rivonia Eleven.”
April 20, 1964
Mandela takes the dock at the Rivonia Eleven trial and speaks for four hours, dramatically outlining the history of racial oppression in South Africa, the rise of the ANC and the goals of MK.
“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities,” Mandela says. “It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Mandela Sent To Prison
June 12, 1964
Eight of the Rivonia Eleven, including Mandela, are found guilty. The next day Mandela and six others are sent to the notorious prison for political dissidents on Robben Island.
Feb. 11, 1966
The government declares District Six of Cape Town a whites only area under the Group Areas Act. Over the next 16 years, more than 60,000 Black residents will be forcibly relocated and their homes and businesses demolished.
1974
A motion to expel South Africa from the United Nations is vetoed by France, the U.K. and the United States. Instead, South Africa is suspended from participating in the General Assembly.
Aprils 30, 1976
Students at Orlando West Junior School, in one of the townships near Johannesburg, go on strike to protest the use of the Afrikaans language for instruction. Similar protests spread across Soweto.
June 16, 1976
A protest rally in Soweto turns violent when police fire on a crowd of thousands. Thirty-eight children are killed. The incident comes to be called the Soweto Uprising and results in a new wave of protests and violence around the country.
Sept. 12, 1977
Activist Steve Biko dies in police custody after 22 hours of interrogation, beatings and torture. More than 20,000 people attend his funeral. No police officers are ever prosecuted for the killing.
The Tide Turns
1980
A Free Mandela movement is launched and is picked up by media around the world. This results in Mandela — mostly an unknown figure outside of South Africa — becoming an international folk hero and a symbol of racial repression.
July 20, 1985
South African President P.W. Botha declares a state of emergency in portions of eastern South Africa, granting police sweeping powers and sharply curtailing the freedom of speech, movement and of the press.
Oct. 25, 1985
A group of rock musicians calling themselves Artists United Against Apartheid — including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend and U2 — releases an anti-apartheid protest song in which they sing they “ain’t gonna play Sun City,” referring to the internationally famous luxury resort and concert venue 85 miles west of Johannesburg.
June 12, 1986
Botha extends the official state of emergency condition to all of South Africa.
Dec. 9, 1988
After being treated for tuberculosis, Mandela is moved to a private house — with four bedrooms, a pool, shade trees and a cook — on the grounds of a prison near the city of Paarl.
Sept. 20, 1989
F.W. de Klerk becomes president of South Africa and immediately begins dismantling elements of apartheid and desegregates many public facilities.
Oct. 15, 1989
Five of Mandela’s Rivonia Eleven co-defendants are released from prison.
Feb. 2, 1990
De Klerk announces a plan to repeal the laws that maintain apartheid and a lifting of bans against the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress and the South African Communist Party.
Feb. 11, 1990
Mandela is released after 29 years as a political prisoner.
Nelson Mandela leaves Victor Verster prison near Cape Town accompanied by his wife, Winnie, on Feb. 11, 1990. Photo from Media 24.
June 7, 1990
The national state of emergency is lifted.
Aug. 6, 1990
The ANC and the South African government sign an agreement officially suspending the armed struggle.
The End of Apartheid
June 17, 1991
Apartheid laws — the Group Areas Act, the Population Registration Act and others — are formally repealed by Parliament.
July 2, 1991
An ailing Oliver Tambo steps down as president of the ANC. Mandela is unanimously elected as his successor.
1992-93
Talks are held between the government and the formerly banned parties on topics like voting rights and the creation of a new national constitution. Meanwhile, factions of the ANC and other parties occasionally clash in violent episodes around the country.
Sept. 24, 1993
With constitutional talks again underway and progress in sight, Mandela urges the world’s business leaders to finally lift economic sanctions and invest in South Africa.
Nov. 18, 1993
An interim constitution specifying free elections to be held the next year is ratified.
Dec. 10. 1993
Mandela and de Klerk receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
March 28, 1994
The Inkatha Freedom Party protests against the upcoming elections by marching on the headquarters of the ANC in downtown Johannesburg. Private security guards open fire, killing 55 protesters.
April 27, 1994
South Africa holds its first truly democratic elections. Mandela casts the first vote of his life in Inanda, Durban. The ANC wins 62% of the vote.
President Mandela
May 10, 1994
Mandela is inaugurated as the country’s first democratically elected president. F.W. de Klerk is sworn in as one of Mandela’s two deputy presidents. In his inaugural speech, Mandela calls for a “time of healing” and vows to fight discrimination of any kind and to assure the rights of Blacks and whites in this “rainbow nation.”
Mandela is sworn in as president of South Africa on May 10, 1994. He calls for “a time of healing” and vows to fight for his “rainbow nation.” Photo from Media 24.
June 23, 1994
South Africa’s 20-year suspension from participation in the United Nations General Assembly comes to an end.
Feb. 4, 1997
A new constitution goes into effect, replacing the three-year-old interim constitution.