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EventGeneral Barry Hertzog, former South African Prime Minister, dies
James Barry Munnick Hertzog was born into a German immigrant family in 1866. He attended school in Kimberly and Stellenbosch, and completed a Bachelor's degree…
EventThe British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) announces that a mysterious epidemic (AIDS) is causing increasing concern in the United States
December is known worldwide as AIDS Day due to the epidemic's existence worldwide. Research into AIDS has dramatically improved the diagnosis and treatment of…
EventDurban magistrate rules the death of Dr Haffejee accidental
A Durban magistrate ruled that no one was to blame for the death of a young dentist, Dr. Hoosen Haffejee, who died in police custody in August 1977. It was…
EventThe UN orders Libya to hand over two suspects linked to the Lockerbie bombing
On 21 December 1988, the Pan Am Flight 103 was flying its transatlantic route from New York to London, when it was destroyed by a bomb. All passengers and crew…
EventA group of six White and several Black rebel army troops mounted another coup attempt on 21/22 November in Transkei, a Black ‘homeland’
A group of six White and several Black rebel army troops mounted another coup attempt on 21/22 November in Transkei, a Black 'homeland'. The dissidents…
EventSA and Mozambique revive Nkomati Accord
During the 1980's P. W. Botha, the President of South Africa and leader of the National Party, launched his "Total Strategy" in response to what he saw as the …
EventSlavery is abolished at the Cape
On 1 December 1834, slavery came to an end in the Cape Colony. The move to abolish slavery in the Colony came a year after the Slavery Abolition Bill of 1833…
EventWolraad Woltemade drowns at sea after saving 14 people from a sinking ship
On 1 June 1773, the Jonge Thomas, a Dutch East India ship, was anchored at the mouth of the Salt River in Table Bay. In the early hours of the morning, a storm…
EventLord Charles Henry Somerset, governor of the Cape Colony, is born in Badminton, England
Lord Charles Somerset, who became the British Governor at the Cape from 1814 to 1826, was born in Badminton England on 12 December 1767. Under his term as…
EventThe Directors of the Dutch East India Company propose Hout Bay to Jan van Riebeeck as a possible area to settle some Dutch families
Hout Bay is a sheltered cove along South Africa's Cape Peninsula. Before European settlement, the area was populated by Khoisan hunter-gathers who lived…
EventPresident Robert Mugabe defends land reform programme
On 18 April 2005, Zimbabwe celebrated twenty-five years of independence after the overthrow of white majority rule, under the then Prime Minister Ian Smith. …
EventA United Nations team finally arrives in Mbandaka, Congo, to investigate alleged massacres of refugees
Following the Rwandan genocide of 1994, thousands of Hutu refugees fled to the neighboring Congo (DRC), previously known as Zaire. This was in an attempt to…
EventSA judge jails former state assassin Eugene de Kock for more than 200 years
During the Apartheid regime, Eugene de Kock was a colonel in the South African Police force. He acted as the commander of a counter-insurgency group located on…
EventKen Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian author and environmental activist, is executed
Born in the Ogani District of Nigeria, Ken Saro Wiwa studied English at the Government College Umuahia. He took up a post as a Civil Administrator during the…
EventSouth African artist Gerard Sekoto is born
Jan Gerard Sekoto was born on 9 September 1913 in Botshabelo, a mission station established by the German missionaries amongst the Pedi community in the…
EventFighting breaks out on the Johannesburg market square
On 4 July 1913, a scuffle broke out between police, mounted soldiers and a riotous crowd at the Johannesburg market square. This happened during the first…
EventAsiatic Law Amendment Act is passed in Transvaal parliament leading to increased Indian protest under MK Gandhi
In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act which enforced registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in…
EventThe Bondelswarts surrender to the German forces
Germany's occupation of Namibia was accomplished through military conquest of the numerous groups in the region, with the Khoikhoi being among the last to be…
EventSir Bartle Frere, the new British High Commissioner delivers an ultimatum to Cetshwayo the Zulu king to disband his army’
The newly appointed British High Commissioner for Southern Africa delivers to Cetshwayo the Zulu king to disband his army, handover offenders. Frere who was…
EventPower Struggle in Zulu hierarchy
A heated dispute between Mangosutho Buthelezi, Minister of Home Affairs and leader of Inkatha Freedom Party, and his nephew King Goodwill Zwelithini, escalated…
EventSouth African Defence Force (SADF) raid Maseru in an effort to kill suspected members of the African National Congress
In the early hours of December 9th, 1982, South African Defence Force commandos crossed the border into Lesotho. Their target was a cluster of houses on the…
Document 9 - First letter from Nelson Mandela to Hendrik Verwoerd
Statement of principles 14. We believe that a conjuncture of circumstances exists which, if there is a demonstrable readiness on the part of the Pretoria…
Introduction
The energies of South African Indians, mobilised in the 1890s against growing anti-Indianism in various parts of South Africa, were channelled into a concerted…
Document 13 - Declaration of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) ad hoc committee on southern Africa on the question of South Africa; Harare, Zimbabwe (The Harare Declaration) Sections 14-24
Published and launched in January 2009 in partnership with Vivalia Press. Editors: Cornelius Thomas Statement of principles 14. We believe that a…
EventSoweto students march against government’s language policy
It all began as a peaceful protest march, but ended with violence, tears, blood and death of a 13 year old boy, Hector Peterson. The Soweto uprising began when…
PlaceEmpangeni
Empangeni, a town about 160 km from Durban on the R34 just off the N2, is positioned in the hilly countryside of the Uthungulu district. The area around…
Historical Overview of Black Resistance, 1932-1952 - The Congress of the People and Freedom Charter Campaign by Ismail Vadi, New Delhi, 1995
Contents Economic Development and the Expansion of the African Working Class The Quiescence of Political Organisation in the 1930s Mass Spontaneity and the…
Chapter VII - The 1980’s
From the book: Side by Side by Helen Joseph Two of our most loved women leaders, Mary Moodley and Lilian Ngoyi, died at the end of the 1970s. They had both…
Chapter II - More of the same
From the book: Side by Side by Helen Joseph After almost five years of house arrest, I was eagerly but anxiously looking forward to 31 October 1967, when the…
ArticleThe Freedom Charter by Norman Levy
This article was taken from the book The Final Prize by Norman Levy (Chapter 10) Time for a Chartist Movement The idea of the Freedom Charter and the…