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EventF.W. de Klerk, former state president of South Africa, is born in Johannesburg.
Frederik Willem de Klerk was born in Johannesburg on 18 March 1936. de Klerk grew up in a political family. He later studied law and practiced as a lawyer in…
EventTwo actors, Athol Fugard and Zakes Mokae arrive in Cape Town to stage a play on the ‘Colour-bar’
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…
EventEdgar Whitehead succeeds Garfield Todd as premier of South Rhodesia.
Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd was premier of South Rhodesia from 1953 till 1958. As a leader of a White minority regime during the period, he was considered a…
EventRight wing Wit Kommando bombs academic’s office
The office of a member of Prime Minister P.W. Botha's team, responsible for drawing up plans for a Southern African Constellation of States, Professor Jan…
EventRhodesia adopts new constitution
Chief among the factors that led to the adoption of a new constitution in Rhodesia on the 30 January 1979 (now Zimbabwe) was that Ian Smith, the Rhodesian…
EventThe first indications of protest over Afrikaans in Soweto schools
The roots of the student uprising of 1976 can be traced in part to the cutbacks by the Apartheid government on education for Black students. The result was…
EventPAC leader Robert Sobukwe is released
Pan-Africanist Congress leader, Robert Sobukwe, was arrested after the Sharpeville anti-pass campaign of 1960 and harshly sentenced to three years in prison…
EventANC Constitutional proposals are disclosed
After a three day meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC), the meeting adopted a new strategic policy, which…
EventThirteen residents of Mofolo die in IFP attack
Thirteen people were killed and eighteen injured in an attack on Soweto residents after an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) rally at Jabulani Stadium. In the…
EventHarms releases his report
The one-man Harms commission released its report on its investigations in the activities of South African Defence Force Army and South African Police counter…
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…
EventMayor of Welkom, in the Free State, is tarred and feathered
Race relations during the decline of the Apartheid regime were particularly problematic as many Whites felt threatened by the eventuality of a regime change…
EventBishop Tutu receives Martin Luther King Award
Bishop Desmond Tutu received the Martin Luther King Jr Award for Non-Violence for his commitment and role during the struggle against apartheid in 1986. …
EventSchools closed in the Western Cape
Carter Ebrahim, Minister of Education and Culture for the mixed race community, announced that 454 out of a total of over 900 schools were going to be closed…
EventNelson Mandela is voted the greatest South African
Former SA president and long serving political prisoner, Nelson Mandela, was voted the Greatest South African in a TV show that had the country nominate their…
EventThe Sunday Times political journalist is suspended
The senior political writer of the Sunday Times, Ranjeni Munusamy, was suspended by the newspaper after her admission that she passed a story on spy…
EventResearchers proclaim they found a type of SIVcpz that is almost identical to HIV
On 4 February 1999 a group of researchers from the University of Alabama proclaimed that they had found a type of Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses (SIVcpz)…
EventOrganisations forward applicants for amnesty to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The African National Congress (ANC) confirmed it had forwarded 300 applications from its members to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for amnesty…
EventMore than 100 miners are crushed to death near Orkney
The mining industry in South Africa remains one of the most hazardous professions, this despite the enormous amounts invested in it and the resulting wealth…
EventThe Afrikaner Broederbond is formed
On 5 June 1918 disaffected Afrikaners were brought together in a new organisation called Jong Suid-Afrika (Young South Africa). In 1919 the organisation…
EventKing Dinuzulu defies British order
Allegedly Zulu Paramount Chief Dinuzulu (Dinizulu) refused British instructions to take up arms against the Boer republics during the Second Anglo-Boer War…
EventThe cornerstone of Cape Town City Hall is laid
Cape Towns City Hall's original foundations were laid at the turn of the 20th Century. The mayor of Cape Town, Thomas Ball, laid the corner stone of the City…
EventBoers occupying Magagabe Hill shell Rhodesian positions at Basuto Kop
The action that culminated with the Boers shelling Rhodesian positions at Basuto Kop on 16 February 1900 can be traced in part by Rhodesian fears that the…
EventFriedrich Engels, German philosopher, dies in London
German author, political theorist and philosopher, Friedrich Engels died in London on 05 August 1895 after a long battle with a throat cancer. The son of a…
EventChristoffel Coetzee de Villiers (37), compiler of South African genealogical registers, dies
Location: back to this day in history search archive Christoffel Coetzee de Villiers was born on 10 March 1850 in Swellendam, in the Cape Colony (now Western…
EventSouth Africa joins the OAU
After the first fully democratic elections, South Africa was officially admitted as 53rd member of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) at a summit, held in…
The child who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga by Ingrid Jonker
The child is not deadthe child raises his fists against his motherwho screams Africa screams the smellof freedom and heatherin the locations of the heart under…
EventThe State Theatre in Pretoria opens
The State theatre in Pretoria opened in 1981 as a non-profit government funded company. The Japanese- influenced building is actually a complex of theatres. At…
EventMbhazima Shilowa, former premier of Gauteng, is born
Mbhazima Samuel (Sam) Shilowa, was born in Olifantshoek in the Transvaal (now Limpopo Province.) After High School, Shilowa moved to Johannesburg, where he…
EventBlacks in South Africa protest against segregation
On the 300 anniversary of the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in Table Bay, the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) at a…