South Africa: New political party - timeline
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Timeline
- December 2008. The Congress of the People (COPE) is officially launched by a group of former members of the ruling African National Congress Party (ANC).
- November 2008. Dissident members of the ANC opposed to party president Jakob Zuma announce their intention to form a new party.
- October 2008. Supporters of ousted president Thabo Mbeki, led by Patrick Mosiuoa Lekota, launch complaints against ANC party president Jakob Zuma, and Lekota is suspended from the ANC.
- September 2008. Thabo Mbeki is forced to resign as president by supporters of Jakob Zuma. Corruption charges against Jakob Zuma, ANC party president, are dismissed.
- December 2007. Jakob Zuma defeats Thabo Mbeki in elections for the ANC party presidency. Corruption charges are filed against Zuma.
- June 1999. The ruling ANC wins landslide victories in elections confirming that ANC party president and South Africa's Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, President Nelson Mandela's chosen successor, will become President.
- December 1997. President Nelson Mandela steps down as president of the ruling ANC at the party's 50th national conference. He is succeeded by Thabo Mbeki, hitherto deputy president of the party and Vice President of South Africa.
- August 1997. F. W. de Klerk announces that he is resigning the leadership of the Nationalist Party (NP)- the former ruling party which had instituted the "apartheid" (racial segregation) system - and would retire from political life.
- May 1994. South Africa's transition to democracy is finally completed when Nelson Mandela, leader of the ANC, is sworn in as the first President of a "united democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa".
- April 1994. South Africa's first non-racial democratic elections are held ending more than 350 years of white domination over the majority black population.
- July 1993. An attack on a Cape Town church, the culmination of a month of heightened political violence, overshadows the publication of a draft interim multiracial constitution the following day.
- March 1992. In a "whites-only" referendum, 68.6 per cent of voters respond positively to the question: "Do you support continuation of the reform process?" Announcing the result, State President de Klerk is triumphant, declaring that "today we have closed the book on apartheid".
- June 1991. Remaining vestiges of apartheid legislation formally disappear from the South African statute book, in accordance with a pledge given by President de Klerk.
- February 1991. President de Klerk promises to scrap all remaining apartheid legislation.
- August 1990. The ANC suspends its 29-year armed struggle at the conclusion of a second round of negotiations with the government.
- May 1990. In the first formal encounter since the founding of the ANC, representatives of the government and the ANC meet in Cape Town, for preliminary talks aimed at removing obstacles to future negotiations on a post-apartheid constitution.
- March 1990. The ANC announces the election of Nelson Mandela as deputy president of the organisation.
- February 1990. President de Klerk, announces in a radical speech the impending release of Nelson Mandela and the "unbanning" of the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC --the ANC's smaller rival), and the South African Communist Party (SACP).
- November 1989. As part of its continuing moves to abolish "petty apartheid" restrictions, the government states that bathing beaches will now be open to all, regardless of colour. The decision follows a number of protest multiracial "swim-ins" by anti-apartheid activists.
- October 1989. President de Klerk's new government underlines its more flexible political stance by releasing unconditionally eight long-term political prisoners, including leading ANC member Walter Sisulu, and permits the organisation of openly pro-ANC rallies.
- July 1989. In what turns out to be one of his last initiatives as President P. W. Botha has the imprisoned Black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela brought to his official Tuynhuys residence in Cape Town for a meeting.
- February 1989. President Botha unexpectedly resigns as leader of the ruling National Party, a post he has held since 1978.
- June 1986. Following the imposition of a nationwide state of emergency, the international debate on whether to impose economic sanctions, punitive or otherwise, on South Africa, intensifies.
- June 1980. The UN Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution which condemns South Africa for "its massive repression against all opponents of apartheid, for killings of peaceful demonstrators and political detainees, and for its defiance of General Assembly and security Council resolutions".
- March 1980. Following calls by Black South Africans for the government to release Black political leaders from prison and enter a round-table conference with them, a campaign is launched in March 1980 for the release of Nelson Mandela.
- November 1976. Further outbreaks of violence occur in the Johannesburg and Cape Town areas.
- June 1976. Violence breaks out in Soweto (South-Western Townships), near Johannesburg.
- November 1971. The Cape Provincial Council removes the names of Coloured (mixed-race) persons from voters' lists in the Cape Province, depriving them of a right they had enjoyed for over 100 years. The measure completes the removal of all non-Whites from the country's political institutions.
- August 1965. The policy of apartheid is extended and internal security laws intensified.
- November 1962. A militant movement "Poqo" (meaning "for Africans only"), a successor to the banned PAC, carries out a series of attacks.
- November 1962. The UN requests sanctions against South Africa, and considers expelling it from the UN.
- October 1961. The general elections held in South Africa on Oct. 18 -- the first to be held since the proclamation of the republic -- result in the return of the NP with an increased majority both in votes and seats.
- August 1961. Nelson Mandela, a 44-year old lawyer and former secretary-general of the banned ANC, is arrested is after a two-year police search.
- May 1961. The Union of South Africa becomes an independent republic outside the British Commonwealth.
- June 1960. Serious disturbances occur in Pondoland. At least six Africans are killed when the police open fire on a crowd.
- April 1960. A new political party, the National Union, is formed.
- March 1960. South Africa withdraws from the British Commonwealth.
- March 1960. The police fire on a large crowd of Black Africans at Sharpeville, killing 67 people. Three more Black Africans are killed when the police fire on a demonstration at Langa location near Cape Town. e
- January 1960. Nine policemen are killed in riots at Cato Manor, the township near Durban which had been the scene of violent disturbances in 1959.
- November 1959. The Progressive Party of South Africa is formed.
- June 1959. A boycott of goods produced by firms controlled by supporters of the South African government is launched by the ANC and allied organisations, which subsequently appeal for foreign support.
- June 1959. Violent riots break out in Durban.
- April 1956. It is announced in Cape Town that apartheid would be enforced on many of the city's bus and tram routes.
- December 1955. The formation is announced of a new political party under the name of the South African Bond (Suid Afrikaanse Bond).
- February 1955. The removal under the Natives Resettlement Act of the African population of Sophiatown (in the Western Areas of Johannesburg) to Meadowlands, a new township, begins.
- November 1954. The National Conservative Party is formed.
- July 1953. The annual report of the South African Commissioner of Police states that a total of 8,391 people had been arrested and charged during 1952 for offences against the government's apartheid legislation arising out of the "passive resistance" movement.
- February 1953. Despite strong protests by the South African delegation, the UN General Assembly debates (a) the apartheid policy of the South African government, and (b) the position of the Indian community in South Africa.
- March 1948. The NP publishes its policy of apartheid.
- December 1933. The South African Party in the Transvaal unanimously approves of fusion with the NP.
