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EventMandela and De Klerk hold emergency talks
On 16 August 1990, President F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela held emergency talks in Pretoria about increasing violence in Soweto. Fighting in Soweto started…
EventAt least 150 people die in clashes between the ANC and IFP
Between 1985 and 1990, political violence was a common occurrence in South Africa, with Black townships most affected. The violence took place under the State…
EventAllan Boesak resigns from the church
The Presbytery of South Africa announced that Dr Allan Boesak, reverend of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) and leading anti…
EventStompie Seipei’s murderer goes to jail
The Rand Supreme Court sentences Jerry Richardson to death for the murder 14-year-old Stompie Seipei. Stompie Seipei was a child activist and member of the…
EventThe Pretoria Minute is agreed upon
The government and the African National Congress (ANC) reaffirmed their commitment to the Groote Schuur Minute at discussions held at the Presidency in…
EventThe ANC and Government accept the Pretoria Minute
The Pretoria Minute is agreed upon by the government and the African National Congress (ANC), concerning release of political prisoners, return of exiles,…
EventAdelaide Tambo returns to South Africa after 30 years
Adelaide Tambo became politically active after her grandfather's arrest at the age of ten. While she attended high school, she started to work as a courier for…
EventGen. Jannie Geldenhuys announces that CCB will be disbanded
In February 1990, President F.W. de Klerk appointed Mr Justice Louis Harms, a Supreme Court judge, to investigate into alleged hit-squads. On 11 February 1990,…
EventSACP is legally re-launched
On 29 July 1990 the South African Communist Party(SACP), which had been unbanned in February 1990, was formally re-launched as a legal organisation at a mass…
EventMembers of the ANC and SACP are detained due to Operation Vula
On 25 July 1990 government security forces detained approximately forty members of the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP)…
EventFurther chaos in Liberian civil war
Liberian President Samuel Kanyon Doe became virtually a prisoner in the presidential mansion as rebels besieged Monrovia and Doe's 500-man security force…
EventInkatha becomes a political party
The Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement, founded on 21 March 1975, was transformed into the multi-racial Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) at a special…
EventDemonstrators strip to deter bulldozers
Shanty town women stripped to the waist and confronted bulldozers sent by authorities to demolish their homes at Dobsonville in Soweto. The women's protests…
EventUN investigative team visits SA
A United Nations (UN) team, led by Mr. Abdulrahim Abby Farah, under-secretary-general, visited South Africa from 9 to 10 June to meet representatives of the…
EventExecutive member of the Brits Action Committee (BAC),Abel Molokwane is murdered
Abel Molokwane (31), executive member of the Brits Action Committee (BAC), was shot dead in Oukasie, Western Transvaal by unknown gunmen. The BAC was formed to…
EventMandela meet De Klerk in Pretoria
African National Congress (ANC) Deputy President Nelson Mandela and State President F.W. de Klerk held discussions in Pretoria on the progress which has been…
EventP.W. Botha resigns from the National Party
Former leader of the National Party (NP) and head of state, P.W. Botha, resigned from the party in protest against President F.W. de Klerk's reform proposals…
EventFather Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest, is injured by a letter-bomb
Father Michael Lapsley was born in New Zealand on 2 June 1949. He was trained as an Anglican priest in Australia, where he joined a religious community, The…
EventVlakplaas Commander testifies before Harms Commission about secret police killings in 1981
In 1981, Dirk Coetzee, Jan Viktor and Jac Buchner began Vlakplaas, a parliamentary hit squad, with 16 police officers. The existence of the unit was first…
EventNelson Mandela says “thank you” to the world
At the Mandela Day 2 concert at the Wembley Stadium in London, England, Nelson Mandela delivers a speech in which he thanks the world for their wide support…
EventNelson Mandela admits to the torture of dissident guerrillas
Nelson Mandela admits that members of the ANC had tortured dissident guerrillas, but says the officials involved have been punished and that any further…
EventA curfew is lifted in Venda
A curfew, which was imposed in the independent Venda homeland as a result of the deposition of the unpopular Frank Ravhele regime, was lifted after the…
EventReconciliation talks between F.W de Klerk and Nelson Mandela are rescheduled due to violence in Sebokeng
On 5 April 1990, at an informal meeting in Cape Town, President F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela agreed to reschedule formal talks between the Government and…
EventNelson Mandela is elected Deputy President of the ANC
In 1990, at the opening of parliament, former state president F.W De Klerk made an unanticipated and startling statement when he asserted that Nelson Mandela…
EventANC’s Nelson Mandela in a historic political rally
African National Congress's deputy president Nelson Mandela addressed a crowd of 300 000 in Port Elizabeth in what was described as South Africa's biggest ever…
EventNegotiations between Nelson Mandela and Mangosutho Buthelezi
30 March 1990 Negotiations between Nelson Mandela and Mangosutho Buthelezi 30 March 1990 Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress (ANC) and Mangosutho…
EventANC and IFP joint peace rally is called off
The African National Congress (ANC) called off a peace rally to be held with Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) scheduled for 2 April in KwaZulu-Natal. The local ANC…
EventEleven protesters are killed in Sebokeng
The police opened fire on a crowd of Sebokeng township residents who sought to march on the local offices of the ruling National Party (NP). The incident…
NP government abandons segregated education
EventThe seven day war in Kwazulu-Natal starts
The first of more than 100 people were killed near Pietermaritzburg. Political conflict in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa caused the death of 200…