The General Laws Amendment Act of 1964 (passed in 1963) or the 90-Day Act, commences on this day. It is dubbed the 90-Day Act as it provides for any person to be detained, without trial, for 90 days. Further, on the expiration of such, the person could be re-arrested under the same law for another 90 days, a process this new law allows to be repeated indefinitely. The Act also allows the state to retrospectively declare unlawful those organisations existing since 7 April 1960, and enables authorities to align Umkhonto We Sizwe with the African National Congress (ANC) and Poqo with the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), both banned organisations. It also allows people convicted of political offences to be held in continuous detention after completion of their sentences, if Minister of Justice Vorster deems them a potential danger to the country or likely to promote Communist principles. This specific clause in the law becomes known as the "Sobukwe clause" as Robert Sobukwe becomes the only person on whom it is exercised. In 1964 the General Laws Amendment Act is changed to allow the Minister to lengthen banning orders before they expire. This law generates enormous protest and its critics argue it contravenes the rule of law and compromises the power of the justice system. Its stated intention is peace, yet it achieves the opposite. In a remarkable example of double-speak, Vorster outlined his motive for introducing the bill, saying it is "because the country is peaceful and because I want to keep it that way, I am introducing the bill timeously." In 1964, 671 people were charged with contravention of security laws and Vorster justifies this by declaring his actions necessary to protect the country against Communist conspiracy. On January 1965 the 90-day measure is suspended but 1 095 people are detained already.

It is announced that efforts by Britain's Foreign Secretary, Mr. Butler and Glasgow University to obtain permission from the South African Government for Albert Luthuli to leave Natal and be installed as Rector of Glasgow University have failed.

The Transvaal section of the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Walter Sisulu against a six years sentence of imprisonment. Sisulu was arrested at Liliesleaf farm, Rivonia, under Section 17 Act 37/1963 and charged with sabotage and attempt to overthrow the government. The dismissal of his appeal meant that he would have to serve six years in prison.

On 11 December 1963 the first of the 'Bantustans' or 'homelands' came into existence when the Minister of Bantu Administration and Development, De Wet Nel, opened the Transkei Legislative Assembly at Umtata. Chief Kaiser Matanzima was installed as Chief Minister. With this development Transkei became partially self-governing. The cabinet, consisting of chief minister Matanzima and five other ministers, controlled the portfolios of finance, justice, the interior, agriculture and forestry, education, and roads and works. Defence, internal security, immigration, money and banking and several other departments remained under control of the South African government. The homelands: After South Africa became a Union, the government wanted Black and White people to live separately, so they set certain areas apart for Black people. Before the Union they were rural areas ruled by local chiefs. They came to be called 'Native Locations' and Black South Africans were systematically dispossessed of their land access via the 1913 Land Act. Later, under apartheid (after 1948) the division and control were more rigorous and these areas were called homelands. The idea was that the homelands would be like countries where the Black people could live and vote for their own governments, led by chiefs controlled by the apartheid state. As the White minority state expanded its divide and rule plan of control, there was a homeland for every major Black language in South Africa. These groups were called nations, and all Black South Africans were made citizens of one of these 'homeland' 'countries', regardless of where they had been born or where they now lived. The devastating forced removal of millions of now non-citizens of South Africa then became part of the history of our country.

On 11 February 1962, two actors, Athol Fugard, 29, from Port Elizabeth, author of the two - man play "The Blood knot" and his co-actor Zakes Mokae, 27, from Johannesburg arrived in Cape Town to stage a three hour play on "Colour-bar". "The Blood Knot" was the much talked about play in South Africa which had a cast of only two characters, a White and African. The play was staged at Labia Theatre, Cape Town on the evening of 12 February 1962. Fugard's play "The Blood Knot" was commissioned by a British publisher Andrew Deutsch to be staged at London's West End in May 1962. "The Blood Knot" had a colour theme, set in a shack at a Port Elizabeth township. The play was about two brothers, one (Fugard) light-skinned and a second brother (Mokae) was dark-skinned. It was a second indigenous South African play to be staged in the West End following "Singpost to Murder" by Monte Doyle. His first play was "No Good Friday" followed by his first internationally successful play "The Blood Knot" which led to his passport being withdrawn by Apartheid government.

Founding member and president of the Pan Africanist Congress, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for incitement of Blacks to urge the repeal of pass laws. Sobukwe led a peaceful Black march to Orlando police station in Soweto on 21 March 1960, the same day a similar protest took place in Sharpeville, to hand over their passes to police officers, thereby deliberately courting arrest. Sobukwe was arrested and sentenced, but refused to appeal against his sentence, as he had refused the aid of an attorney, on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction over him because it could not be considered either a court of law or a court of justice. After his prison term had expired, the new General Law Amendment Act (no. 37 of 1963) was passed to allow his imprisonment to be renewed annually at the sole discretion of the Minister of Justice. This procedure became known as the "Sobukwe clause" and went on for a further three years. He was the only one imprisoned under this clause. In 1969 he was put under house arrest in his home in Galeshewe, Kimberley, until his death.

The South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was founded in Windhoek, South West Africa (presently Namibia) on 19 April 1960 by Herman Toivo Ya Toivo. The party was originally formed to advocated immediate Namibian independence from South Africa and became the country's leading party following independence in 1990. SWAPO, led by one of its co-founders Sam Nujoma, began attacking the South African regime. It was essentially a military organisation, using guerrilla tactics to fight the South African forces. In 1966 SWAPO was recognised by the United Nations as the legitimate government of Namibia. SWAPO won the first independent election in 1989 and Sam Nujoma became the first president of Namibia.

Long before the inception of apartheid "Coloured" people in South Africa occupied this precarious position between White and Black South Africans. This position was intensified during apartheid by the creation of a separate identity, reinforced by the various apartheid laws that strived to keep racial groups apart. Some of these laws included the Mixed Marriages Act, the Immorality Act and the Group Areas Act. Though not aimed exclusively at "Coloureds", this legislation served to entrench a separate identity even further. The culmination of this was the Separate Representation of Voters Act, in which "Coloureds" were placed on a separate voters' role and were restricted to voting two White parliamentarians into office. Despite the great opposition it was met with, the apartheid government took it a step further and created a separate Department of "Coloured" Affairs in 1958. On 23 October, this department was established with I.D. Du Plessis as its head. "Coloured" South Africans, along the black and Indian population, waged a long battle to have their political rights recognized. By the 1980s, a Tricameral Parliament was created, in which "Coloureds" were granted the right to vote, but still in separate houses of representation. It was only with the dismantling of apartheid that the CAD was dissolved and that "Coloureds" along with all other South Africans were granted the right to political representation.

Location: back to this day in history search archive The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in South Africa, with Thabana Ntlenyana the highest peak in the country at 3,482 mt. The Drakensberg also consists of various parts, including the Amphitheatre and pinnacle rocks such as the Devil's Tooth. Until 1950, the Devil's Tooth was considered unclimbable, but on 11 August 1950 E. Scholes, D. Bell and P. Campbell formed a 'summit team' and completed the first successful summiting of the Devil's Tooth, still considered on of the 'Berg's toughest rock challenges.

In 1950 the apartheid government introduced the Unlawful Organisations Act and the Suppression of Communism Act. In March 1950 the African National Congress (Transvaal), the Communist Party of South Africa, the Indian Congress and the African People Organisation organised a "Freedom of Speech Convention" in Johannesburg. The Convention was called to protest the Suppression of Communism bill and a ban imposed on Dr. Dadoo and Sam Khan prohibiting them from speaking in certain cities. 500 delegates attended the Convention and 10.000 people attended the rally afterwards. At the convention it was decided that a series of protests marches and meetings would be held across the country culminating in a national "stay at home" on the 1st May. The ANC youth league viewed the call for the stay at home on 1st of May as undermining their own plan to for a general strike on 1st May and actively set about disrupting meetings held by the Convention organizers.In response to the 1st May call to "Stay at Home", the government banned all meetings and sent police reinforcements to Johannesburg. However, the protest went on and on 1 May the police attacked gatherings of protesters. For the first time since the 1921 Bulhoek Massacre the police opened fire on the protesters killing 18 and wounding 30 people. The Suppression of Communism Act was to be approved in Parliament shortly after, and the CPSA was forced to dissolve. The then ANC President, Dr J.S Moroka, called an emergency meeting of the ANC's National Executive Committee. The Committee decided that, for the first time in the Party's history the ANC would call for a day of mourning and a general strike on 26 June 1950 in protest of the 1 May killings and the Suppression of Communism Act. This call was supported by the African People's Organisation and the South African Indian Congress. Since this nation-wide protest, June 26 has been observed annually by the African National Congress and allied organisations as South Africa Freedom Day. Since the 1950 protests, many of the campaigns of the liberation movement have been launched on this day. The historic Defiance Campaign against unjust laws in which 8,000 people went to jail was inaugurated on 26 June 1952. It was this campaign that led to the consideration of apartheid by the United Nations General Assembly. The Congress of the People, with nearly 3 000 representatives from the ANC and Indian, Coloured and White organizations, was also held on 26 June in 1955 and adopted the "Freedom Charter" which represents the aspirations and demands of the people of South Africa. Subsequently all the members of the Congress Alliance adopted the Freedom Charter in their national Conferences as their official program. That historic document declared that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white" and that "no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people." Since 1994 Freedom Day has been celebrated on 27 April, in commemoration of the first democratic elections held in South Africa in 1994.