1960. Seventy black demonstrators are killed at Sharpeville. The ANC, which has responded to apartheid with civil disobedience led by Nelson Mandela, is banned. The following year, Mandela starts a campaign of sabotage with an ANC military wing. 1964. After his arrest two years earlier and subsequent imprisonment, Mandela is handed a life sentence. He spends 18 of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island, where he studies law and seals his status as the hero of the anti-apartheid movement. 1976. Black anger boils over in riots that become known as the Soweto uprising – South Africas largest and deadliest anti-apartheid protests. An estimated 600 people, including child demonstrators, are killed in clashes that rage for three weeks. 1990. A year after FW de Klerk replaces PW Botha as president and segregation begins to end, the ANC is unbanned and Mandela is set free. Nine days earlier, FW de Klerk announces the end to apartheid and the coming of a new South Africa to a stunned all-white parliament. 1994. Mandela becomes President as the ANC wins South Africas first non-racial elections. The country is restored to the Commonwealth, sanctions are lifted and South Africa takes a seat at the UN General Assembly after an absence of 20 years.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 20:20:55 +0000
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