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Portrait of The end of apartheid

History · The 20th century

The end of apartheid

1990–1994

Decolonisation and civil rights — South Africa's negotiated transition

The negotiated dismantling of South Africa's system of racial segregation, imposed by the National Party after its 1948 election victory and sustained by pass laws, the Group Areas Act and the removal of black South Africans to nominally independent homelands. Decades of resistance, township revolt, international sanctions and sporting and cultural boycotts made the system unsustainable. On 2 February 1990 President F. W. de Klerk unbanned the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress and the Communist Party, and Nelson Mandela was released on 11 February after twenty-seven years in prison. Multi-party talks, interrupted by serious violence, produced an interim constitution in 1993. In the first election with universal franchise, on 27 April 1994, the ANC won and Mandela was inaugurated president on 10 May. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission under Archbishop Desmond Tutu began hearings in 1996.

How to spot them

  • ▸A president who unbanned the liberation movements in a speech to parliament in February 1990
  • ▸A prisoner released after twenty-seven years, most of them on an island off Cape Town
  • ▸The first election in which all South Africans could vote, in April 1994
  • ▸Two men who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993
  • ▸A commission that offered amnesty in exchange for full disclosure

What happened

The speech opening parliament on 2 February 1990 that unbanned the liberation movements (1990)

F. W. de Klerk also announced the release of the country's most famous prisoner

A walk through the gates of Victor Verster prison on 11 February 1990 (1990)

Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned since 1962, eighteen of those years on Robben Island

Sixty-nine people shot dead at a protest against the pass laws on 21 March 1960 (1960)

The Sharpeville massacre, now marked as Human Rights Day in South Africa and as the UN day against racial discrimination

A student protest against being taught in Afrikaans that ended in killings on 16 June 1976 (1976)

The Soweto uprising; the photograph of Hector Pieterson became its emblem

The 1964 trial at which the accused said he was prepared to die for the ideal of a democratic society (1964)

The Rivonia Trial; the speech from the dock lasted about three hours

Queues stretching for miles at the polls on 27 April 1994 (1994)

The first non-racial election; the date is now Freedom Day

Hearings from 1996 offering amnesty in return for full disclosure, chaired by an archbishop (1996)

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission under Desmond Tutu, who also coined the phrase Rainbow Nation

Quick-fire facts

  • •The Afrikaans word means apartness; the system was formalised after the National Party won the 1948 election under D. F. Malan
  • •Key laws included the Population Registration Act, the Group Areas Act and the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, all 1949–50
  • •Mandela was convicted at the Rivonia Trial in 1964 and spent eighteen years on Robben Island before moving to Pollsmoor and Victor Verster
  • •The Sharpeville massacre of 1960 led to the banning of the ANC and PAC and to the armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe
  • •Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, died in police custody in 1977
  • •South Africa was expelled from the Olympic movement from 1964 and left the Commonwealth in 1961, rejoining in 1994
  • •Talks took place at CODESA, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, from 1991, and at the later Multi-Party Negotiating Forum
  • •Mandela and de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993
  • •Mandela was inaugurated on 10 May 1994 and served a single term, standing down in 1999
  • •The final constitution was adopted in 1996; the 1995 Rugby World Cup, won by South Africa, became the transition's popular symbol

Drill it — 10 cards

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Sources