The Durban Declaration was a statement signed by over 5 000 people in the scientific community stating that HIV caused AIDS. The declaration was signed and published in response to then President Thabo Mbeki's AIDS denialism. Mbeki asserted the view that HIV was not the sole cause of AIDS and this viewpoint affected the South African government's response to the AIDS epidemic. Access to azidothymidine (AZT) was limited due to Mbeki's belief that it was toxic and not effective in dealing with HIV. Instead, Mbeki espoused the view that AIDS was linked to the issue of poverty and that poverty should be dealt with broadly, rather than focusing on AIDS specifically. Mbeki's AIDS denialism has become synonymous with his presidency and in 2008 it was determined that his influence on policy resulted in thousands of preventable deaths. The declaration was published to coincide with the International AIDS Conference being held in Durban that year. The document was signed by people with doctorate level qualifications including 11 Nobel Laureates. Despite the document's strong support for HIV being the cause of AIDS, the South African government's reaction to the Durban declaration was that it was 'elitist'. This was consistent with Mbeki's belief that the link between HIV and AIDS formed part of racist rhetoric that black men were vectors of disease, and was a ploy to assert the superiority of Western medicine over Afro-centric approaches to health and disease. Mbeki and health minister Dr Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang instead advocated for African traditional medicine and approaches to health, seeing poverty as a cause of AIDS rather than a risk factor.

After South Africa's first national democratic elections in April 1994, Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa's first democratic President at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 10 May 1994.. He replaced the outgoing National Party leader F.W. de Klerk as President. Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the Robben Island Prison. In June 1990 he retired from politics at the age of 80.

Fred M'membe is a Zambian journalist who founded the country's first independent newspaper, Zambia Post. As the only independent newspaper in Zambia, Zambia Post constantly clashed with the government, from the time of President Kenneth Kaunda up until President Rupiah Banda's rule. He has been arrested and prosecuted several times for his reporting. M'membe is the third recipient of the Media Institute of Southern Africa's Press Freedom Award in 1995. That same year, he also won the International Press Freedom Award. However, M'membe had been accused of being an ally of President Michael Sata, leader of the Patriotic Front, who died in London of an undisclosed illness on 28 October 2014.

Elsa the lioness was one of three orphaned lions whose mother was killed in self defence by George Adamson. Adamson was a wildlife conservationist based in Kenya. He was forced to kill Elsa's mother in self- defence when she tried to attack him. It was only after he had shot her that he realised the lion was protecting her three cubs. Adams took the cubs home and together with his wife, Joy, raised them. The two older cubs were later sent to a Rotterdam zoo, while Elsa remained with the Adamsons. Joy and Elsa developed a close bond as she slowly trained the lioness to survive in the wild. Eventually, the time came and Elsa was released into the wild. The Adamsons returned to England and upon their return a year later, found that Elsa is the mother of three cubs and that she still remembered them. Elsa died from Babesia felis, a tick-borne blood disease, on 24 January 1961. Joy documented her experience with Elsa in a book titled Born Free, published in 1996. The book was later made into a Hollywood film of the same title.

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti was born Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas on 25 October 1900 in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Kuti founded a women's organisation with 20 000 members that comprised of literate and illiterate women. The organisation was thrust into the public eye when it organised a rally of women against price controls which were hurting the female merchants of the Abeokuta markets. This was just the first of many campaigns for the benefit of women, including their right to vote. Kuti had three sons Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a musician, Beko Ransome-Kuti, a doctor, and Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti. All her sons were activists in their own right. In 1978 Kuti was thrown out of a second floor window by military men that had invaded her son, Fela's compound. She went into a coma and died two months later.

The leader of the New Republic Party (NRP), Vause Raw announced that his party was ready to give the President's Council a chance as a start on the road to a negotiated future. The history of the President's Council could be traced back to September 1980 when it was appointed with the task of recommending to the Government a constitutional blueprint. According to News 24 Archives, Raw rose to prominence in the now-defunct United Party (UP) as the party's fortunes declined after it was voted out of office in a landslide defeat by the National Party (NP) in 1948, which then introduced Apartheid policy. He became the founding member and the leader of the NRP, formed in 1977 after the break-up of the UP, which started splintering after 1959 when MPs, including veteran anti-apartheid fighter Helen Suzman.

The Durban Supreme Court cancelled the South African government's announcement of 18 June 1982 concerning the repossession of the Ingwavuma region, KwaZulu. The cancelation was done on the grounds that the government did not meet its legal obligation to consult fully with the KwaZulu authorities before making its announcement. The State President, P.W. Botha responded by issuing a new Proclamation, under a different law, once again placing Ingwavuma under government control. The announcement on 18 June came 4 days after the Minister of Development and Cooperation, Dr. Piet Koornhof made his speech to the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly.

Under orders from Commandant-General Louis Botha, Field-Cornet Jan Potgieter's commando burned Chief Sikhobobo's kraal at Qulusini, looted cattle and grain, and drove the inhabitants towards Vryheid. This attack on the Qulusi was avenged within five days. Sikhobobo informed the magistrate at Vryheid, A. J. Shepstone, that he was taking a party of men outside the town to try to recover some of his stolen cattle. That night a Qulusi impi of 300 men attacked a commando of seventy Boers under Field-Cornet Jan Potgieter laagered at Holkrans (Ntatshana), some twenty kilometres north of Vryheid. The impi surrounded the Boer laager intending to surprise them but a premature shot gave the Boers some warning. Nevertheless the Zulus used the darkness to creep in close, practically wiping out the commando. In this attack 56 Boers, most of them local farmers, were killed and 3 taken prisoner while all the cattle at the camp were driven off. The Zulu impi suffered the loss of 52 killed and 48 wounded.

Following a series of tense negotiations and years of liberation struggle, the first democratic election was held in South Africa on the 27th April, 1994. This election changed the history of South Africa. It paved the way towards a new democratic dispensation and a new constitution for the country. For the first time all races in the country were going to the polls to vote for a government of their choice. Nineteen political parties participated and twenty-two million people voted. The election took place in a festive atmosphere, contrary to fears of political violence. The African National Congress (ANC) won the election with 62.65 % of the vote. The National Party (NP) received 20.39 %, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) 10.54 %, Freedom Front (FF) 2.2 %, Democratic Party (DP) 1.7 %, Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) 1.2 % and the African Christian Democratic Party 0.5 %. Although the ANC gained a majority vote, they formed the Government of National Unity, headed by the ANC's Nelson Mandela who became the first black President of the country.

The Minister of Cooperation and Development, Dr. Piet Koornhof, announced that the '72-hour curfew' will be lifted on a trial basis in Pretoria and Bloemfontein, as part of a plan to remove all restrictions. The '72-hour curfew' imposed on visiting blacks was one of the most hated apartheid laws. This curfew formed an integral part of influx-control regulations that restricted black people's movement. In his statement he said that the curfew requiring blacks to have a permit to stay more than 72 hours in an urban area would be dropped in Pretoria and Bloemfontein as an experiment.