-
The Dutch India Company landed the first European settlers on the Cape of Good Hope, launching a colony (Known as Boers or Afrikaners, speaking a dutch dialect best known as Afrikaans)
-
-
-
Anglicization of government and the freeing of slaves drove about 12,000 Afrikaners to make the “great trek” north and east into African tribal territory, where they established the republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
-
-
-
-
-
South Africa becomes member of the UN, but wouldn’t sign the declaration of human rights
-
-
-
BiographyThe leader of ANC, Nelson Mandela, was sentenced to life imprisonment
-
-
-
A multiracial forum led by de Klerk and Mandela, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), began working on a new constitution
-
An interim constitution was passed, which dismantled apartheid and provided for a multiracial democracy with majority rule
-
The country's first multiracial election resulted in a massive victory for Mandela and his ANC
-
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Desmond Tutu, began hearings regarding human rights violations between 1960 and 1993
-
Mandela retires. On June 2, Thabo Mbeki, the pragmatic deputy president and leader of the ANC, was elected president in a landslide, having already assumed many of Mandela's governing responsibilities.
-
African National Committee delegates chose Jacob Zuma as their leader, ousting Mbeki. Corruption charges against Zuma
-
April 15, the African National Congress won South Africa's general election in a landslide, taking about 70% of the votes, and Thabo Mbeki was sworn in for a second term.
-
