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EventNelson Mandela receives a hero’s welcome in New York
On 20 June 1990 Nelson Mandela was greeted the way New York welcomes its heroes – with mounds of security and miles of tickertape. According to reports, the…
PlacePublic Library, Port Elizabeth
The building was designed Henry Cheers, an Architect from Twickenham. The Library was officially opened on 29 July 1902. It was built in the late Victorian…
EventNational Heritage Day celebrates South African cultural diversity
National Heritage Day is one of the newly created South African public holidays. The day was previously known as Shaka Day, and was celebrated in kwazulu/Natal…
EventThe University of the Orange Free State is founded in Bloemfontein
The University of the Free State was founded on 18 March 1950. The institution began as a small college in what was then the Orange River Colony, called the…
EventSouth Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth
On 5 October 1960 a referendum of White voters was held to decide whether South Africa should become a republic. The result showed that 52% were in favour of a…
EventCharles Nqakula , Minister of Safety and Security and Chairperson of the SACP, is born
Minister of Safety and Security of the Republic of South Africa since 7 May 2002 and current Chairperson of the South African Communist Party (SACP), Charles…
EventLondon hosts an international conference on the protection of the African elephant and rhinoceros
On this day in history, and international conference was held to implement legislation to protect the African elephant and rhinoceros. This is because due to…
EventJoe Slovo is born
Joe Slovo, the former South African Communist Party (SACP) and African National Congress (ANC) leader and Minister of Housing was born in Lithuania. From 1950s…
EventNeil Aggett is buried in Johannesburg
Neil Aggett, former organiser of the Food and Canning Workers Union and African Food and Canning Workers Union, was buried in Johannesburg. It was estimated…
EventChief Albert Luthuli, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of the ANC, is killed in Groutville
On 21 July 1967, Chief Albert Luthuli died after he was struck by a train on a railway bridge close to the home that he had been confined to by the Apartheid…
EventAbolition of Internal Security Act
The multiparty negotiating forum agreed to repeal section 29 of the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allowed for detention without trial. This measure had…
EventAPLA burns down farm house in Fouriesburg
The Pan Africanist Congress 's military wing, the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA) burnt down the farm house of Edmund Middleton of Fouriesburg on 10…
EventWinnie Mandela is found guilty
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former African National Congress Women League president and Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, was found guilty on four charges of…
EventThe first hearing looking into the mysterious death of Samora Machel begins
The Margo Commission, set up by the South African government to probe the mysterious death of Mozambican president Samora Machel, started its first hearing at…
EventCleric and anti-apartheid activist, Mpilo Desmond Tutu is ordained as Archbishop of Cape Town
On 7 September 1986, former Secretary-General of the South African Council of Churches and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu, was ordained as an…
EventLeendert Janszen, junior merchant of the VOC, recommends settlement at the Cape
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was established as a trading company in 1602, with the aim of monopolising trade in East Asia, in particular the spice trade…
Event14 Year old girl is convicted in Pietermaritzburg High Court
The South African Broadcasting Cooperation (SABC) reported that a fourteen year old girl has been found guilty in the Pietermaritzburg High Court of murdering…
EventHealth Minister Tshabalala-Msimang announces that SA pledges R20 million to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria
On 20 May 2002, South African Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, announced at a meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva that South Africa was…
EventBreyten Breytenbach; SA poet, activist and painter, receives the Hertzog Prize for his poetry
Breyten Breytenbach, South African poet, painter and activist, received the Hertzog Prize for his two Afrikaans poetry volumes, an elegy 'Oorblyfsels: 'n…
EventCollen Chauke, infamous escapee, is captured
Collen Chauke, South Africa's most wanted fugitive, was captured in Nelspruit. He was arrested at a roadblock in Nelspruit near South Africa's border with…
EventEmily Hobhouse receives a reply to her request to be included in the Ladies Commission
On 26 July 1901 Emily Hobhouse wrote a second letter to St John Rodrick asking for reasons for the War Department's refusal to include her in the Ladies…
EventBuilding of Delagoa Bay railway line is completed
The building of the Delagoa Bay railway line to Pretoria was completed on this date. It was scheduled to be opened for traffic on 2 November 1894, however, the…
EventM.K. Gandhi is forcibly removed from a whites-only train carriage
On 7 June 1893, M.K Gandhi, later known as "The Mahatma" or "Great Soul" was forcibly removed from a whites-only carriage on a train in Pietermaritzburg, for…
EventBritish explorers, John Speke and J.A. Grant announce that Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile
John Speke and James Grant, on their return from an expedition in Africa announced that Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile River. The expedition was Speke…
EventThe Hewat Teacher Training College in Athlone is set alight in solidarity with the UWC students on a boycott
The Hewat Teacher Training College in Athlone was set alight in solidarity with the University of the Western Cape (UWC) students who convened a meeting on 2…
EventHastings Banda, former president of Malawi, is born.
Hasting Kamuzu Banda was the leader of Nyasaland which became Malawi in in 1964, with him as its president. Banda was born in Kasungu and went to study in the…
EventConstruction of the Victoria Falls Bridge and the railway line are completed
The Victoria Falls Bridge was constructed in 1905 at the height of British penetration of Northern and Southern Rhodesia. The brainchild of Cecil Rhodes, the…
EventDutch East Indian Company, pioneer in the expansion of European settlement in South Africa is formed
The Dutch East India Company(DEIC) or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) popularly referred to as 'the Company', was founded when seventy-three directors…
EventKenya is granted independence
Kenya gained its independence from Britain with Jomo Kenyatta as the country’s first Prime Minister. The Union Jack was replaced by the black, red and green…
EventSophiatown residents are forcefully moved to Soweto
It was in the early hours on 9 February 1955 when around 2 000 policemen, armed with guns, knobkerries and rifles, forcefully moved the families of Sophiatown…