Timeline South Africa
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3.41 Bil BC In 2004 Michael Tice,
Stanford graduate student, report finding evidence of fossilized
microbes of this age from a mountain near Barberton, South Africa.
(SFC, 9/30/04, p.A2)
2.6 Bil BC African rocks from South Africa’s Eastern
Transvaal in 2000 indicated primitive microbes on dry land from about
this time.
(SFC, 12/1/00, p.A21)
2 Bil BC A meteorite impacted Earth in South Africa.
The discovery of the Vredefort Crater, 250-300 km in diameter, was
announced in 1994.
(www.hartrao.ac.za/other/vredefort/vredefort.html)
197Mil BC In 2009 Scientists in South Africa said
that a newly discovered dinosaur species that roamed the Earth about
this time may help explain how the creatures evolved into the largest
animals on land. The Aardonyx celestae was a 23-foot- (7-meter-) long
small-headed herbivore with a huge barrel of a chest. The species
walked on its hind legs but could drop to all fours.
(AFP, 11/11/09)
2Mil BC-1.5Mil BC Australopithecus robustus. Skull of adult female
found by Quarryman Fourie in 1950 at Swartkrans, South Africa. A survey
of Robustus teeth by Alan Mann shows an average age at death of 17
years. A female Paranthropus robustus was found in 1994 Drimolen, South
Africa.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p.570)(SFC, 4/27/00,
p.A4)
1.8Mil BC Fossils of the bipedal Paranthropus
robustus from the Swartkrans cave of South Africa dated to about this
time. The species went extinct about 1Mil BC. In 2006 new evidence
suggested the species had a broader diet than was believed earlier.
(SFC, 11/10/06, p.A4)
200000BC It is speculated that the Neanderthals and
Homo Sapiens split from a common ancestor about this time. DNA research
in 2008 indicated that shortly after this time Homo Sapiens split into
2 groups. Most people in 2008 represented one group, while the bushmen
of southern Africa represented the other.
(SFC, 10/1/96, p.A2)(Econ, 4/26/08, p.101)
186,000BC Human footprints that dated back to this
time were discovered along Langebaan Lagoon some 60 miles north of Cape
Town, South Africa, in Sep, 1995. The 117,000 year-old prints were cut
out and moved to the South African Museum in 1998.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A1,17)(SFC, 2/27/98, p.D3)(SFC,
6/24/98, p.A12)
165000BC In 2009 scientific analysis of stone age
tools from South Africa suggested that humans about this time began
using fire to make it easier to flake stone tools and to make them
sharper. The process was believed to have become widespread by about
70000BC.
(SFC, 8/26/09, p.A3)
164,000BC In 2007 scientists reported that shellfish
evidence from the a cave at Pinnacle Point near Mossel Bay, South
Africa, indicated human habitation at this time and that red ochre at
the site indicated a cognitive world enriched by symbols.
(SFC, 10/18/07, p.A8)
75,000 In 2002 evidence from the
Blombos Cave in South Africa indicated possible symbolic thinking.
Sophisticated tools of stone and carve bone had etchings that indicated
complex behavior. Evidence of ornamental bead-making was reported in
2004.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A2)(SFC, 4/16/04, p.A2)
41,000BCE Scholars surmised that diggers in Africa’s
Swaziland began to seek iron about this time.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, Z1 p.7)
c8,000BCE Traces of a man-made shelter from this time
were found in northern South Africa north of Johannesburg.
(SFC, 1/15/99, p.A14)
c1k-14kCE The Mapungubwe kingdom thrived in South
Africa. It was rediscovered by archeologists in the 1930s.
(Arch, 1/05, p.10)
1240-1630CE The site of Thulamela in Kruger Nat’l.
Park in northeastern South Africa had graves containing people with
gold ornaments.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.71)
1488 Feb 3, Bartolomeu Dias,
Portuguese explorer, sighted the coast of Africa sailing north and made
landing at Mossel Bay (South Africa) and realized that they had rounded
the continent. He saw the southern tip on his return journey in May and
named it the Cape of Good Hope. He continued north to the Great Fish
River near present day Port Elizabeth, and then returned home in
December.
(V.D.-H.K.p.173)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomeu_Dias)
1497 Nov 18, Vasco da Gama reached
the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1497 Nov 22, Portuguese navigator
Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1580 Sir Francis Drake rounded the
promontory of what later became Cape Town.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.T8)
1652 Officials [farmers] of the
Dutch East India Company were sent from Europe to run the small
victualing station at the cape of South Africa. They were distinguished
from the native born Dutch people who are called Afrikaner. It marked
the beginning of Cape Town. Jan Van Riebeck, a Dutch ship’s surgeon,
founded Dap Town.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 563)(SFEC, 6/22/97, Z1 p.5)(SFEC,
10/15/00, p.T8)
1655 Dutch settlers planted the
1st vines for grapes.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, p.T6)
c1656 European settlers arrived at
the cape. Robben Island in Cape Town’s Table Bay from this time on was
variously used as a mental institution, leper colony and prison.
(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A10)
1687 Dec 31, The 1st Huguenots
departed France to the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1688 Persecuted Huguenots, French
Protestants, arrived and improved the quality of wine production.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, p.T6)
1692 A 350-acre vineyard was
established in the Paarl Valley on the border of Nelson Creek. It was
sold to Alan Nelson in 1989, who developed it with his workers to a
prize-winning vineyard. Mr. Nelson in thanks to his workers gave them
25 acres valued at $500,000 in 1998.
(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1761 A transit of Venus occurred.
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon observed it from Cape Town, South
Africa.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.79)
1772 Oct 30, Capt. Cook arrived
with ship Resolution in Capetown.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1781 Apr 29, French fleet stopped
Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1786 Graaff-Reinet, the major town
of the eastern Karoo, was founded.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.60)
1795 Sep 16, The Capitulation of
Rustenburg: A Dutch garrison at the Cape of Good Hope surrendered to a
British fleet under Adm. George Elphinstone.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1799 Nov 5, The Danish ship
Oldenborg was wrecked on her outward passage by being beached in the
roadstead at Cape Town, South Africa, during a north-westerly gale,
thus becoming one of the 127 ships that have been lost on this
minuscule portion of the South African coast.
(www.milhist.dk/weapons/oldenbur/oldenbur.htm)
1800-1900 The Witwatersrand gold mines were
discovered, the largest gold reserve find in the world. The gold came
from a strip of land 62 miles long and 25 miles wide and produced
three-fourths of all the gold ever mined.
(SFEC, 4/21/97, p.A10)(SFEC, 8/8/99, Z1 p.8)
1803 Feb 21, The British return
the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch (Batavian Republic) under the Treaty
of Amiens.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1806 Jan 10, The Capitulation of
Papendorp: The Dutch in Cape Town surrendered to a British fleet.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1807 Mar 25, The British
Parliament abolished the slave trade. This led to a labor problem in
South Africa.
(HN, 3/24/98)(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1810 Saartjie Baartman (~21) left
South Africa with 2 white men who promised to make her rich. [see 1816]
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A8)
1814 May 30, The First Treaty of
Paris was declared, after Napoleon's first abdication. It returned
France to its 1792 borders and secured for the British definite
possession of the Cape of Good Hope.
(HN, 5/30/98)(HN, 5/30/99)(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1814 Aug 13, Treaty of
London-Netherland was signed to stop the transport of slaves. By
agreement Britain paid the Dutch £6 million in compensation for
the Cape of Good Hope. [see May 30]
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)(MC, 8/13/02)
1816 Saartjie Baartman (26), taken
from S. Africa in 1810, fell sick and died penniless and friendless in
France after being exhibited as the "Hottentot Venus." Her body was
dissected, her brain and genitals were bottled, and her skeleton was
wired and exhibited in the Musee de l’Homme in Paris. In 2002 her
remains were returned to S. Africa. In 2003 Barbara Chase-Ribaud
authored the novel "Hottentot Venus" based on the Baartman story. In
2007 Rachel Holmes authored “African Queen: The Real Life of the
Hottentot Venus.”
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A8)(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.M6)(SFC,
1/1/07, p.D2)
1820 Some 4,000 British colonists,
the Albany settlers, settled in the eastern coastal region of the Cape
of Good Hope.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1826 The British Cape Colony was
extended northward to the Orange River.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.885)
1834 Aug 1, The British
Emancipation Act began. This ended slavery in the West Indies and all
Caribbean holdings. Slavery was abolished throughout the British
Empire. Some 35,000 slaves were freed in the Cape Colony. The Minstrels
Parada in Cape Town, SA, originated as a spontaneous outpouring of
marches, music and dancing to mark the abolition of slavery.
(NH, 7/98, p.29)(HN, 8/1/98)(EWH, 4th ed, p.885)(AP,
1/2/06)
1835-1837 Some 10,000 Dutch (Boer) cattlemen and
farmers moved northward from the Cape Colony due to restrictions on
slavery and the sympathetic native policy of the government. They
settled in what became the Transvaal. Under Piet Retief they began to
occupy Zululand and Natal.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.885)
1835-1868 Lesotho acted as a buffer between the
Afrikaner’s and British colonial interests and supplied seasonal farm
workers to both.
(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A11)(EWH, 4th ed, p.885)
1836 May 31, HMS Beagle anchored
in Simons Bay, Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1838 Feb 6, Having failed to
obtain land by trickery from the Zulus of South Africa, Boar leader
Piet Retief and 60 followers were executed by Dingaan, the Zulu king.
(HN, 2/6/99)(EWH, 4th ed, p.885)
1838 Dec 16, Boers led by Andreas
Pretorius defeated the Zulus in the Battle of Blood River and settled
in Natal. The Afrikaners while escaping from British rule encountered
resistance from the native black peoples. In the Battle of Blood River
a few hundred Boers repelled an attack by more than 10,000 warriors of
the Zulu king Dingaan.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.885)(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 563)
1840 Zulu king Dingaan was
defeated by his rival Umpanda, who accepted the rule of the Boers.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.885)
1845 George Cato, the 1st mayor of
Durban, South Africa, acquired almost 5,000 acres in an area of Durban
that came to be called Cato Manor.
(MT, Fall/99, p.10)
1846 Scottish missionaries set up
a school for Africans near Alice, South Africa. The Lovedale Bible
College, a prep school for Blacks interested in going to seminary, soon
followed.
(MT, Fall/99, p.13)
1852 Jan 17, At the Sand River
Convention, the British recognized the independence of the Transvaal
Board.
(HN, 1/17/99)
1852 Feb 26, The British frigate
Birkenhead sank off South Africa and 458 died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1853 Jul 5, Cecil John Rhodes
(d.1902), politician, diamond merchant, was born in South Africa. He
discovered a vast lode of diamonds at Kimberley and founded the De
Beers Mining Co. He ran for Cape parliament in 1881 and was prime
minister of the Cape Colony from 1890-1896. He founded Rhodesia (later
Zimbabwe) for mineral speculation and endowed the Rhodes scholarships
upon his death with £3 million.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(MC, 7/5/02)
1854 Feb 23, Great Britain
officially recognized the independence of the Orange Free State.
(HN, 2/23/99)
1854 Richard Owen, founder of
London’s Natural History Museum discovered fossils in South Africa of a
plant-eating prosauropod named Massospondylus (bulky vertebrae). Owen
is the man who coined the term dinosaur.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.A2)
1855-1920 Olive Schreiner, South African author and
feminist: "My feeling is that there is nothing in life but refraining
from hurting others, and comforting those that are sad."
(AP, 7/24/98)
1857 In South Africa a millenarian
movement started up based on the prophesy that if the Xhosa destroyed
all their cattle, their ancestors would lead them to victory over the
British. Huge numbers of animals were killed leaving the Xhosa without
means to plant sufficient crops. Thousands of Xhosa starved and the
rest moved under protection of other tribes. The Xhosa never recovered
their lands.
(MT, Fall/99,
p.15)(www.stormfront.org/whitehistory/hwr56.htm)
1862 Sep 27, Louis Botha,
commander-in-chief of the Boer Army against the British and first
president of South Africa, was born.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1866 Diamonds were discovered in
South Africa. [see 1867]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1867 In South Africa diamonds were
discovered. This and the later discovery of gold prompted the end of
Boer isolation. [see 1866]
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 564)
1869 An 84-carat diamond was found
by a shepherd boy in South Africa. It was cut to 47-carat pear-shaped
diamond that came to be called the Star of South Africa.
(SSFC, 12/20/09, p.N7)
1876 The gladiolus rust, Uromyces
trasversalis, was discovered in South Africa. Some 90 years later it
turned up in the Mediterranean region then spread to Europe, South
America, and Australia. In 2006 it was detected in the US.
(SSFC, 8/9/09, p.L2)
1879 Jan 11, The Zulu war against
British colonial rule in South Africa began. [see Jan 12]
(MC, 1/11/02)
1879 Jan 12, British-Zulu War
began as British troops under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus
invaded Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal. [see Jan
11]
(MC, 1/12/02)
1879 Jan 22, In South Africa
battles at Isandlwana Zulu impis or regiments armed with spears and
shields killed around 1,300 British troops bearing rifles. Private
Samuel Wassall lived through the battle and was awarded the Victoria
Cross along with 14 others.
(AFP, 2/5/07)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.91)
1879 Jan 22-24, Eighty-two British
soldiers with rifles held off attacks by 4,000 Zulu warriors with
spears at the Battle of Rorke's Drift in South Africa. A large British
troop had just been massacred prior to this battle. The 1964 film
"Zulu" was based on this event.
(History Channel, 4/9/98)(HN, 1/22/00)
1879 Mar 12, The British Zulu War
began. [see Jan 11]
(HN, 3/12/98)
1879 Mar 28, British mounted
troops under Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood went up Hlobane Mountain to
battle the Zulus—only to be surrounded by a 22,000-man impi (army).
Lieutenant Colonel Redvers Buller, received the Victoria Cross for his
gallantry during the difficult withdrawal of his troopers from the
mountain. Hlobane was the worst rout of British cavalry—and the last
Zulu victory—of the Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa.
(HN, 3/12/98)(HN, 3/28/99)
1879 Mar 29, Some 2,000 British
and Colonial troops of the 90th Light Infantry Regiment under the
command of Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood repulsed a major attack by 20,000
Zulu tribesmen at Khambula, Zululand. Jubilant over their victory at
Hlobane the day before, the Zulus prepared to finish off the British at
Khambula. This time, however, the outcome was different as the Zulus
vainly assaulted British foes who were dug in and ready for them. The
assault, depicted in "The Battle of Khambula" by Angus McBride, ended
in failure for the Zulus, leaving them doubting for the first time
their ability to win the Anglo-Zulu War.
(HN, 3/29/99)(MC, 3/29/02)
1879 Jul 4, Afrikaner Union was
formed by Rev SJ du Toit at Cape colony.
(Maggio, 98)
1879 Jul 4, Battle at Rorkes
Drift: Britain ended attack on Zulus.
(Maggio, 98)
1879 Aug 28, Cetewayo (or
Cetshwayo), last of the great Zulu kings, was captured by the British
at the end of the Zulu wars.
(RTH, 8/28/99)
1879 John Dunn (d.1885),
Englishman and friend of Zulu King Cetshwayo, was granted 10,000 acres
after the Anglo-Zulu war. Dunn took 27 Zulu wives and was declared a
chief by the king.
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A9)
1881 Feb 26, Natal British troops
under General-Major Colley occupied Majuba Hill.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1881 Mar 4, South African
President Kruger accepted a cease-fire with the British in the First
Boer War (1880-1881 – aka Transvaal Revolt). [see Mar 23]
(SC, 3/4/02)
1881 Mar 23, Boers and Britain
signed a peace accord. This ended the 1st Boer war.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1883 Apr 16, Paul Kruger was
chosen president of Transvaal.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1884 Apr 24, Otto von Bismarck
cabled Cape Town that South Africa had become a German colony.
(HN, 4/24/98)
1886 The discovery of gold on the
Witwatersrand, South Africa, launched the city of Johannesburg. Labor
was provided from Lesotho.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 562)(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A11)
1889 Mar 19, Sarah Gertrude
Millina, South African writer (The Dark River, God's Stepchildren), was
born.
(HN, 3/19/01)
1891 Jul 31, Great Britain
declared territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within
their sphere of influence.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1892 Jan 3, J.R.R. Tolkien, author
of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was born in Bloemfontein, South
Africa. "All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander
are lost."
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)(AP, 1/5/99)(AP, 1/3/00)
1892 Jun 13, Basil Rathbone, actor
(Sherlock Holmes), was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
(MC, 6/13/02)
1892 A Boer government grabbed 90%
of the land of southern Africa’s biggest woman, the Rain Queen of the
Lobedu. She was immortalized by H. Rider Haggard as “She.”
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.62)
1893 Mohandas Gandhi (24) moved to
South Africa to work as a legal advisor to an Indian businessman.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1895 Cecil Rhodes supported the
Jameson Raid to help rebellious British settlers in the Dutch Transvaal.
(WSJ, 7/11/03, p.W19)
1895 Barney Barnato, a mining
magnate, bought a block of land at the corner of Eloff and Commissioner
streets in Johannesburg to develop a world-class hotel. His untimely
death and the Boer War delayed the opening of the Carlton Hotel to 1906.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A22)
1897 Jan 22, Eighty-two British
soldiers held off attacks by 4,000 Zulu warriors at the Battle of
Rorke's Drift in South Africa.
(HN, 1/22/99)
1898 In South Africa Sir Thomas
Cullinan discovered a prospect that contained kimberlite, a rock that
can be rich in diamonds. A mine was established there in 1903 and
became one of the world’s most valuable diamond resources.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.82)
1899 Sep 8, The British government
sent an additional 10,000 troops to Natal South Africa.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1899 Oct 11, South African Boers,
settlers from the Netherlands, declared war on Great Britain. In the
Boer War Dutch settlers of the South African Republic (the Traansvaal)
under Pres. Paul Kruger and the Orange Free State refused to accept
English rule in southern Africa. The Boers were the predominately Dutch
inhabitants of the two republics, which had gained their independence
from Great Britain in the 1850s. Years of tensions between British
settlers and the Boer governments exploded into war. Eventual British
victory resulted in the Boer republics becoming colonies of the British
Empire and in 1910 part of the Union of South Africa.
(V.D.-H.K.p.289)(HNQ, 7/12/99)(SFC, 10/8/99, p.D3)
1899 Oct 12, The Anglo-Boer War
began. [see Oct 11]
(HN, 10/12/98)
1899 Oct 30, British Morning Post
reporter Winston Churchill reached Capetown.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1899 Oct 30, In South Africa two
battalions of British troops were cut off, surrounded and forced to
surrender to General Petrus Joubert's Boers at Nicholson's Nek.
(HN, 10/30/98)
1898 Joseph Silver (d.1918), a
Polish-born Jew, arrived in Johannesburg fresh from a stint in Sing
Sing for burglary and a stay in London a decade earlier. Shortly after
arriving in Johannesburg, Silver set up a string of cafes, cigar shops
and police-protected brothels. Silver was executed as a spy in Poland
in 1918. In 2007 Charles van Onselen authored "The Fox and The Flies:
The World of Joseph Silver,” in which he suggested that Silver was
London’s “Jack the Ripper.”
(AP, 5/2/07)
1899 Nov 15, Winston Churchill
(24), war correspondent for London’s Morning Post, was captured by
Boers in Natal, South Africa. He escaped prison in Pretoria on Dec 12
and after some days reached the English colony in Durban, Natal.
(ON, 12/08, p1)
1899 Nov 28, The British were
victorious over the Boers at Modder River.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1899 Dec 15, In South Africa the
Boars defeated the British at the Battle of Colenso.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1899-1902 In the Boer War some 12,000 blacks and
18,000 whites were killed from epidemics in British concentration
camps. Some 25,000 blacks and 94,000 whites were herded into the
world's first concentration camps. Thomas Packenham later authored "The
Boer War."
(SFC, 10/8/99, p.D3)
1899-1902 The Anglo-Boer War. Winston Churchill took
part as a war correspondent for the Morning Post. Shortly after his
arrival he was caught in an ambush and taken prisoner in Pretoria from
whence he escaped. In 1999 his granddaughter Celia Sandys authored
"Churchill: Wanted Dead Or Alive."
(WSJ, 12/29/99, p.A12)
1900 Jan 8, The Boers attacked
Ladysmith, but are turned back by General White in South Africa.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1900 Feb 6, Battle at Vaalkrans,
South Africa (Boers vs. British army).
(MC, 2/6/02)
1900 Feb 8, British General Buller
was beaten at Ladysmith, South Africa as the British fled over the
Tugela River.
(HN, 2/8/99)
1900 Feb 14, General Roberts
invaded South Africa’s Orange Free State with 20,000 British troops.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1900 Feb 15, The British
threatened to use natives in the Boer War fight.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1900 Feb 18, Battle at Paardeberg
(Boer War), 1,270 British killed or injured.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1900 Feb 28, After a 119-day siege
by the Boers, the English defenders of Ladysmith, under General Sir
George White were relieved.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1900 Mar 11, British Prime
Minister Lord Salisbury rejected the peace overtures offered from Boer
leader Paul Kruger.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1900 Mar 27, The London Parliament
passed the War Loan Act which gave 35 million pounds to the Boer War
cause.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1900 Apr 9, British forces routed
the Boers at Kroonstadt, South Africa.
(HN, 4/9/98)
1900 May 12, Mostly Black fighters
in Mafikeng repelled a Boer assault. Col. Robert Baden-Powell,
commander of the British troops in Mafikeng, armed black fighters and
many died during the 7-month siege.
(SFC, 10/8/99, p.D3)
1900 May 28, Britain annexed the
Orange Free State.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1900 Jun 5, In South Africa,
British troops under Lord Roberts seized Pretoria from the Boers.
(HN, 6/5/98)
1900 Aug 31, British troops
overran Johannesburg.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1900 Nov 30, The French government
denounced the British government and declared sympathy for the Boers.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1900 Zulu Princess Magogo
kaDinuzulu (d.1984) was born. She became a composer and singer with a
3-octave range. She became the mother of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
(WSJ, 6/22/04, p.D8)
1901 Aug 20, Fawcett committee
visited Mafeking concentration camp in Cape Colony.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1901 Sep 3, Boer General Smuts
entered Kiba Drift in Cape Colony.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1901 Sep 17, At the Battle at
Elands River Port, Boer Gen. Smuts destroyed the 17th Lancers unit .
(MC, 9/17/01)
1900 Dec 1, Kaiser Wilhelm II
refused to meet with Boer leader Paul Kruger in Berlin.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1900 Dec 9, The Russian Czar
rejected Paul Kruger’s pleas for aid to the Boers in South Africa
against the British.
(HN, 12/9/01)
1900-1902 Lord Herbert Horatio Kitchener created
concentration camps where hundreds of thousands of Boer women, children
and old men were herded. An estimated 16,000 died in the camps.
(WSJ, 2/27/00, p.A24)
1901 Mar 23, The world learned
that Boers were starving to death in British concentration camps.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1901 Jun 20, Charlotte M. Manye of
South Africa became the first native African to graduate from an
American University.
(HN, 6/20/00)
1901 A process of "forced
removals," whereby Blacks were removed to allow for all-white areas,
was begun.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.T8)
1902 Jan 17, Gideon Scheepers,
South Africa Boer leader, was executed.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1902 Mar 10, The Boers scored
their last victory over the British, capturing British General Methuen
and 200 men.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1902 Mar 26, Cecil Rhodes (48),
Prime Minister of Cape Colony (1890-96), died. [see Apr 4, 1902]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1902 Apr 4, British financier
Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will to provide scholarships for
Americans at Oxford University in England. The first scholars were
selected in 1903. In Rhodesia [later Zimbabwe] after Cecil John Rhodes,
British imperialist, died at age 48 he was buried in a tomb in the
Matopos Hills. He had co-founded De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd., and
built great railways through southern Africa.
(AP, 4/4/97)(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A25)(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)
1902 Apr 10, South African Boers
accepted British terms of surrender.
(HN, 4/10/98)
1902 May 6, There was a Zulu
assault at Holkrantz, South-Africa.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1902 May 31, The Boer War ended
between the Boars of South Africa and Great Britain with the Treaty of
Vereeniging. This effectively ended a 3-year uprising by the Boers, led
by Louis Botha, commandant general of the Transvaal forces. Botha was a
signatory at the peace conference. The combination of superior fire
power and a brutal war of attrition launched by Lord Kitchener forced
the Boers to give in. Kitchener burned the farms of Africans and Boers
alike and collected as many as a 100,000 women and children in
carelessly run and unhygienic concentration camps on the open veldt.
Britain annexed Transvaal.
(V.D.-H.K.p.289)(HN, 5/31/99)(SFC, 9/25/99,
p.A21)(MC, 5/31/02) (HNQ, 6/29/02)
1902 The British Colonial
Administration singed a law that gave 100-acre farms to 63 descendants
of John Dunn (d.1885).
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A9)
1903-1988 Alan Paton, South African author: "The
tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that they are not
mended again."
(AP, 7/7/98)
1904 Aug 11, German General Lothar
von Trotha defeated the Hereros tribe near Waterberg, South Africa.
[see Namibia]
(HN, 8/10/98)
1904 Soweto (an acronym for
southwest townships) was established as a separate, African-only
district.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.T4)
1905 Jan 25, Largest diamond,
Cullinan (3106 carets), was found in South Africa.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1906 Feb 9, Natal proclaimed a
state of siege in Zulu uprising.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1906 Apr 17, In South Africa Zulu
chiefs Siganandi and Ndubi refused to take part in an expedition in
pursuit of chief Bamibaata, who was in rebellion against the Natal
government.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 Sep 11, Mohandas Gandhi
addressed a meeting in Johannesburg on social protest against the
Asiatic Law Amendment, a new law by the province of Transvaal that made
it compulsory for all Indians over age 8 to register with the
government and carry ID cards. In the India Opinion he published
articles on what he called Satyagraha (Truth Force): "the vindication
of truth not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but on one's
self."
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1906 The luxury Carlton Hotel
opened in Johannesburg. It closed in 1998.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A22)
1906-1996 Sir Laurens van der Post, South African
author: "Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they
are convinced beyond doubt that they are right."
(AP, 4/29/01)
1907 Mar 2, General Louis Botha
was named premier of Transvaal.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1907 Jul 1, The Asiatic
Registration Act became law in the province of Transvaal, SA.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1908 Jan 11, Mohandas Gandhi and a
group of other Indian men were arrested for refusing to register under
the Asiatic Registration Act.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1908 Aug 16, Mohandas Gandhi and
hundreds of other registered Indians set fire to thousands of
registration cards at the Hamidia Mosque in Johannesburg.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1908 Oct 8, Mohandas Gandhi was
again arrested. And sentenced to 2 months in prison. Following his
release he was again arrested for not carrying a registration card.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1909 Jul 26, The SS Waratah left
Durban, South Africa, with 211 passengers and crew. The steamship,
enroute from Melbourne to London, was due in Cape Town 3 days later,
but never arrived.
(Econ, 9/19/09, p.94)
1909 Nov, Mohandas Gandhi returned
to South Africa from a trip to England to lobby the government to help
repeal the Registration Act. He founded a communal farm named "Tolstoy"
to help support a few members of his Satyagrahi movement.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1909 Dec 28, The first manned,
controlled, powered flight in the whole continent of
Africa and the entire southern hemisphere was successfully carried out
by the Frenchman
Albert Kimmerling (d.6/12/1912) at East London, South Africa using a
Voisin bi-plane.
(Internet)c
1910 May 31, The Union of South
Africa was founded as a union within the British Empire.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 566)(AP, 5/31/97)
1910 Jul 9, Govan Mbeki (d.2001),
the son of a Xhosa chief, was born.
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.A24)
1910 Louis Botha was elected prime
minister, and held the post until his death in 1919. Botha was the
first prime minister of the Union of South Africa. His only
formal education was at a German mission school in his native Orange
Free State. He became active in politics when the New Republic became
part of the South African Republic in 1888. When war broke out in
1899, Botha quickly rose through the ranks finally being the commandant
general of the Transvaal forces and a signatory at the peace conference
in 1902.
(HNQ, 8/18/00)
1912 Dec 14, Louis Botha resigned
as South Africa's premier.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1912 In South Africa Walter Max
Ulyate Sisulu (d.2003), anti-apartheid hero, was born.
(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A20)
1912 The African National Congress
(ANC) was formed.
(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A20)
1913 Nov 6, Mohandas K. Gandhi led
a march of Indian miners into Transvaal, South Africa. He was arrested
3 times during the 1st 4 days of the march. The miners had struck
because the Cape Colony Supreme Court Justice had ruled that only
Christian marriages registered by the Registrar of Marriages would be
considered legal.
(AP, 11/6/97)(ON, 9/03, p.5)
1913 A South African Land Act
reserved 87% of the country’s land for the white minority.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.38)
1914 Jan, Gen. Smuts began
negotiations with Mohandas Gandhi to eradicate many of the racist laws
imposed on South African Indians.
(ON, 9/03, p.5)
1915 Feb 2, Abba Eban (d.2002),
Israeli statesman, was born in South Africa. He grew up in England,
attaining honors at Cambridge University, where he honed his oratory as
a leader of the university debating society.
(AP, 11/17/02)
1915 Jul 9, Germany’s South West
Africa surrendered to Gen. Botha of the Union of South Africa.
(http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhodesia/swatf.htm)
1916 Jan 12, Pieter W. Botha,
later president of South Africa, was born in Orange Free State.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1916 In South Africa the Univ. of
Fort Hare (UFH) was officially established.
(MT, Fall/99, p.13)
1917 Ernest Oppenheimer founded
the Anglo American Corp., a mining company.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A20)
1918 Jun 11, Nelson Mandela,
president of South Africa, anti-apartheid leader, was born. Prior to
becoming president he served 18 of 27 years in jail on Robben Island.
[see Jul 18, Sep 18]
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A10)(HN, 6/11/98)
1918 Jul 18, Nelson Mandela, first
black president of South Africa, was born in Qunu, S. Africa. [see Jun
11]
(HN, 7/18/98)(MC, 7/18/02)
1918 Sep 18, Nelson Mandela, later
pres. of South Africa, was born. [see Jun 11, Jul 18]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1919 May 6, Paris Peace Conference
disposed of German colonies; German East Africa was assigned to Britain
& France, German SW Africa to South Africa.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1919 Prime Minister Louis Botha
died.
(HNQ, 8/18/00)
1920 Feb 4, The 1st flight from
London to South Africa took off and lasted 1 month.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1920 Dec 17, The League of Nations
assigned the colony to South Africa to govern as a "Class A" mandate.
(http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhodesia/swatf.htm)
1921-1929 In South Africa the nomadic Nama people
were forced from their lands near the mouth of the Orange River
following the British discovery of diamonds in the area. In 1998
community elders initiated a bid to reclaim their land and asked for
ownership of the mining operations and compensation of $350 million for
the removed diamonds and environmental damage. A 2003 ruling
established that community members were entitled to both land and
monetary restitution.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A22)
1922 Oct 8, Dr. Christiaan
Barnard, Pioneering South African heart-transplant surgeon, was born.
[see Nov 8]
(MC, 10/8/01)
1922 Nov 8, Christiaan Barnard,
South African surgeon, was born. He performed the first human heart
transplant operation. [see Oct 8]
(HN, 11/8/00)
1923 Nov 20, Nadine Gordimer,
Nobel Prize-winning South African novelist, was born.
(HN, 11/20/00)
1925 Jul 7, Afrikaans was
recognized as one of the official languages of South Africa, along with
English and Dutch.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1927 In South Africa Alexkor Ltd.,
a state-run diamond mining company, was set up in the town of Alexander
Bay as a work program for poor whites. The local Nama were forced out
after mineral rights were awarded to Alexkor Ltd. In 2007 the
government agreed to restore the 330-square-mile northern coastal strip
to the tribe and pay $28 million compensation as well as millions more
in development funding.
(AP, 10/9/07)
1929 Ernest Oppenheimer, founder
of the Anglo American Corp., took control of De Beers.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A20)
1931 Oct 7, Desmond Tutu, South
African Black archbishop who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, was
born.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1932 Mar 4, Miriam Makeba, singer
(Grammy 1965), was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
(HN, 3/4/01)(SC, 3/4/02)
1932 Jun 11, Athol Fugard,
playwright, director, actor and novelist, was born in Middelburg, South
Africa as Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard. As a child he was known as Hally
before he decided he wanted to be called Athol.
(www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1651)(HN, 6/11/01)
1934 Jan 27, Julian Ogilvie
Thompson, CEO of De Beers, was born.
(MC, 1/27/02)
1935 May 29, André P.
Brink, South African writer (Dry White Season), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1935 May 29, Denis J. Worrall,
South African politician/leader (DP), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1936 Mar 18, Frederik Willem de
Klerk, president of the Republic of South Africa, was born in
Johannesburg. He initiated the abolition of apartheid.
(Hem. 1/95, p. 19)(HN, 3/18/99)
1937 In South Africa the vervet
monkey was classified as vermin after one bit the daughter of the
country’s finance minister. In 1976 the species was listed as
threatened by the Convention on Int’l. Trade and Endangered Species.
(SFC, 5/19/07, p.B6)
1938 Karen Blixen wrote her novel:
"Out of Africa."
(SFEC, 11/3/96, BR p.5)
1939 Sep 6, The Union of South
Africa declared war on Germany.
(AP, 9/6/07)
1939 Olive Schreiner wrote her
novel: "The Story of an African Farm."
(SFEC, 11/3/96, BR p.5)
1939 Solomon Linda’s Original
Evening Birds made recordings that included the piece "Mbube" (The
Lion). In 1951 the Zulu song was recorded by Pete Seeger with
"Uyimbube" (You’re the lion) mistranslated to "Wimoweh." The song
became a big hit in 1961 recorded by the Tokens as "The Lion Sleeps
Tonight." Linda died in poverty.
(NH, 6/97, p.66)(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A10)
1943 May 25, Wynand C. Malan,
South African lawyer, NP/DP-politician, was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1944 May 17, D. du Toit (Harvard
College Observatory, Boyden station, Bloemfontein, South Africa)
discovered the comet, 66P/du Toit, on a photograph.
(http://cometography.com/pcomets/066p.html)
1944 In South Africa Walter Sisulu
(1912-2003), Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo formed the ANC Youth
League.
(AP, 5/6/03)(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A20)
1945 Jan 25, The US Justice
Department's Antitrust Division filed suit in the U.S. District Court
in New York against De Beers, four other British or South African
companies, three Belgian companies and one Portuguese Company which
together produced and sold 95 percent of the world's diamonds,
'charging them with conspiring to restrain and monopolize the foreign
trade of the United States in gem and industrial diamonds in violation
of the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Wilson Tariff Acts.
(www.macha.f9.co.uk/d-Ch5-rationing.html)
1946 Dec 18, Stephen Biko, South
African anti-apartheid activist, was born.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1948 May 26, South Africa elected
a nationalist government with apartheid policy. The National Party of
the Dutch Afrikaners came to power and imposed apartheid. P.W. Botha
(1916-2006) was among those elected to parliament.
(WSJ, 7/28/98,
p.A16)(http://tinyurl.com/yxx4zh)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.56)
1948 Alan Paton authored the novel
"Cry the Beloved Country."
(WSJ, 10/4/99, p.A40)
1949 Jan 14, There was a
Black-Indian race rebellion in Durban, South Africa that left some 142
dead. 2 days of murder, pillage and arson left some 50 Indians dead,
more than 500 injured and thousands in makeshift refugee camps. The
Africans, whose toll was 87 killed and 550 injured, believed they'd won
the Battle of Cato Manor.
(MC,
1/14/02)(http://durban.kzn.org.za/durban/about/3.html)
1949 Jun 29, The government of
South Africa enacted a ban against racially mixed marriages.
(AP, 6/29/99)
1949 South Africa established an
apartheid program.
(TOH, 1982, p.1949)
1950 Jan 29, Riots broke out in
Johannesburg, South Africa, over Apartheid.
(HN, 1/29/99)
1950 Apr 27, South Africa passed
the Group Areas Act, formally segregating races.
(HN, 4/27/98)(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.T8)
1950 Sep 11, Jan C. Smuts,
co-founder of British RAF and S. African PM (1919-48), died at 80.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1950 Laurence Marshall, a former
president of Raytheon, took his family to the bush land of the Kalahari
Desert in South Africa where they encountered the native Bushmen. The
area later became the border of Namibia and Botswana. In 2006 his
daughter Elizabeth Marshall Thomas authored ”The Old Way: A Story of
the First People.”
(SSFC, 11/5/06, p.M3)
1950 The South Africa Nationalist
government banned Communists and forced them to go underground to
struggle against apartheid.
(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A19)
1950 South Africa set up Sasol as
a state-owned company and authorized funds for the development of a
coal-to-liquids facility called Sasolburg.
(WSJ, 8/16/06, p.A12)
1950-1980 About 3.5 million blacks were forcibly
trucked off to ethnic territories, often abandoning land, houses and
cattle.
(WSJ, 5/17/96,p.A-10)
1951 J.D. Bold wrote "Phrase Book,
Grammar and Dictionary of Fanagalo," a pidgin language used by miners.
(WSJ, 4/15/98, p.A9)
1952 Mar 24, Great demonstrations
took place against apartheid in South Africa.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1953 A freedom charter in the
struggle against apartheid was framed in Soweto, South Africa.
(AFP, 5/20/06)
1954 South Africa began refining
oil.
(SFC, 8/16/00, p.A17)
1955 The government removed the
black residents of Sophiatown and razed the area for a whites only
suburb.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
1956 Dec 6, Nelson Mandela and 156
others were arrested for political activities in South Africa.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1957 May 22, South Africa
government approved race separation in universities.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1957 Ernest Oppenheimer, founder
of the Anglo American Corp., died.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.A20)
1959 The Pan African Congress was
founded.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A8)
1959 The Usutu virus, a life
threat to birds, was 1st observed in South African mosquitoes. By 2004
it had spread to Europe and ravaged the blackbird population.
(SFC, 8/21/04, p.B10)
1960 Mar 21, A police massacre in
Sharpeville, South Africa, left some 70 black protestors dead. The ANC
was outlawed.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C2)(SFEC, 2/9/97, z1 p.7)(AP,
3/21/08)
1960 Mar 31, The South African
government declared a state of emergency after demonstrations led to
the deaths of more than 50 Africans.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1960 Albert John Luthuli
(c1898-1967), tribal chief and president-general of the African
National Congress, won the Nobel Peace prize.
(http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1960/lutuli-bio.html)
1960 Joe Modise was appointed high
commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A22)
1961 Mar 15, South Africa withdrew
from British Commonwealth.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1961 Mar 29, In South Africa
Nelson Mandela was acquitted on a treason charge after a 4 year trial .
(MC, 3/29/02)
1961 Apr 13, The U.N. General
Assembly condemned South Africa for apartheid.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1961 May 31, South Africa became
an independent republic.
(AP, 5/31/97)
1961 Aug 24, Johannes Vorster, a
former Nazi leader, became South Africa's minister of justice.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1962 Aug 4, Nelson Mandela was
captured by South African police.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1962 Aug 5, Nelson Mandela was
arrested for incitement and illegally leaving South Africa.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1962 Nov 6, The UN General
Assembly adopted resolution 1761 (XVII), which established a Special
Committee on Apartheid in South Africa. The non-binding resolution
called upon members "separately or collectively, in conformity with the
charter" to break diplomatic relations with South Africa, to close
ports to South African vessels, to forbid vessels flying their flags to
enter South African ports, to boycott South African trade, and to
suspend landing rights for South African aircraft. The committee held
its first meeting on April 2, 1963.
(Econ, 9/15/07,
p.74)(www.anc.org.za/un/reddy/aamun.htm)
1963 The Rivonia trial began and
resulted in the jailing of Nelson Mandela and Govan Mbeki. In 1999
Glenn Frankel authored "Rivonia's Children." White activists (Joe Slovo
and his wife Ruth First, Rusty and Hilda Bernstein, and Anna Marie and
Harold Wolpe) of the South African Communist Party, involved in the
trial, fled into exile. The trial was named after the area where the
ANC members were arrested.
(WSJ, 10/4/99, p.A40)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A26)
1963 Albie Sachs was jailed
without charges for 168 days. He described his experience in the book:
"The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, z1 p.7)
1963 Steve Tshwete (d.2002 at 64)
was arrested and sentenced to 15 years on Robben Island, where he spent
time with Nelson Mandela. He later became South Africa’s security
minister.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A24)
1963 South Africa conducted a
joint nuclear test with Israel, but the Israelis did not confirm the
report.
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A2)
1964 Jun, In South Africa Nelson
Mandela, convicted of treason in the Rivonia Trial, was moved into a
jail cell on Robben Island. He stayed there until Apr 1982.
(SFC, 12/19/96, p.C1)(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A19)
1964 Aug 18, South Africa was
banned from Olympic Games because of apartheid policies.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1965 Dec 1, South Africa
government said children of white fathers are white.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1965 Donald Woods founded and
edited the Daily Dispatch until 1977 when the government put him under
effective house arrest.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A15)
1966 Aug 8, South African
Broadcasting banned the Beatles for Lennon's anti-Jesus remark.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1966 Sep 6, South African Prime
Minister Hendrik Verwoerd was stabbed to death by a deranged page
during a parliamentary session in Cape Town. Demitrios Tsafendas was
reported to have been insane with the belief that a tapeworm inside his
head instructed him to do the killing. In 2001 Henk Van Woerden
authored "The Assassin: A Story of Race and Rage in the Land of
Apartheid."
(AP, 9/6/97)(SSFC, 7/8/01, DB p.63)
1966 Oct 27, The UN deprived South
Africa of Namibia.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1966 Albie Sachs was ordered by
the government into exile. He went to England and spent 11 years
studying for a Ph.D., and then moved to Mozambique.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, z1 p.7)
1966 In South Africa District Six,
a multicultural community in Cape Town, was declared an all-white area.
Black were allowed to return in 2004.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.T8)(AP, 2/12/04)
1967 Jul 21, In South Africa ANC
president Albert Luthuli died after being hit by a train in what was
widely thought to have been an assassination operation. The
anti-apartheid icon received the 1960 Nobel prize for his role in the
struggle against whites-only rule.
(AP, 7/11/07)
1967 Dec 3, Surgeons in Cape Town,
South Africa, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, performed the first human
heart transplant at the Groote Shur Hospital. Louis Washkansky lived 18
days with the new heart. The first heart transplant operation in the
U.S. was on December 6, 1967, in New York City.
(AP, 12/3/97)(HNQ, 1/9/99)
1967 Dec 21, Louis Washkansky (55)
died in South Africa 18 days after undergoing the 1st heart transplant.
(AP, 12/3/97)(HNQ, 1/9/99)
1967 Miriam Makeba (1932-2008),
South African folk singer and anti-apartheid activist, released her hit
single “Pata Pata.”
(SFC, 11/11/08, p.B5)
1969 May 12, Winnie Mandela was
detained under South Africa’s Terrorism Act and was placed in solitary
confinement for seventeen months. In 1970 she was placed under house
arrest.
(www.answers.com/topic/winnie-madikizela-mandela)
1969-1991 Alfred Nzo (d.2000 at 74) served as the
secretary general of the ANC.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.D4)
1970 May 15, South Africa was
excluded from Olympic play.
(http://tinyurl.com/4p3x2n)
1971 Mar 3, South African
Broadcasting Corp lifted its ban on the Beatles.
(www.southafrica.to/history/history1948.htm)
1971 Dec, The main 600-room
structure of the Carlton Hotel was completed.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A22)
1971 "Umabatha" by Welcome
Msomi, playwright and director, premiered at the Amphitheatre of the
Univ. of Natal. It was a recast of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the context
of 19th century Zulu history.
(WSJ, 7/25/97, p.A12)
1971 In the Orange Free State,
South Africa, 19 citizens were arrested for contravening the Immorality
Act by having sex across the color line.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.81)
1971 In South Africa shaft No. 14
in Gold Reef City near Johannesburg closed. In the 1980s developer
Norman Jarrett helped create the "Gold Reef City" theme park.
(SFEC, 8/10/97, Z1 p.4)(http://tinyurl.com/2oam78)
1971-1985 In 2005 Peter Hug, history professor at the
Univ. of Bern, reported that a Swiss nuclear research center aided
South Africa between 1971 and 1985 in the sectors of acceleration
technology and uranium enrichment.
(AP, 10/28/05)
1973 Fossils of 190 million year
old dinosaur embryos were unearthed in South Africa. They belonged to a
plant-eating group called prosauropods named Massospondylus (bulky
vertebrae) first discovered in 1854.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.A2)
1974 Nov 12, South Africa was
suspended from UN General Assembly over racial policies.
(www.anc.org.za/un/un-chron.html)
1975 Oct 14, South Africans
secretly launched Operation Savannah when the first of several South
African columns (task force Zulu) crossed into Angola from Namibia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_intervention_in_Angola_(1975-1991))
1975 Oct 23, A Battle between
Cuban and South Africa troops took place in Angola.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_intervention_in_Angola_(1975-1991))
1975 Nov, In Ebo, Angola, some
1,300 Cuban troops halted the advance of a much larger South African
column.
(SSFC, 3/29/02, p.A12)
1975 Breyten Breytenbach (b.1939),
Afrikaner writer, was charged with sabotage during a clandestine visit.
He was sentenced to 9 years in prison but was released in 1982 with the
intervention of Francois Mitterand.
(WSJ, 10/4/99, p.A40)
1976 Jun 16, In South Africa white
police gunned down teenagers Hector Pieterson and Hastings Ndhlovu and
caused a nationwide riot that left 700 people dead. Students at Morris
Isacson High School in Soweto had marched to protest a new rule that
called for Afrikaans as the medium of instruction.
(SFC, 6/15/96, p.C12)(USAT, 7/9/04, p.10D)
1976 Aug 10, In South Africa Jimmy
Kruger, minister of justice and police, recommended killing
anti-apartheid demonstrators at a cabinet meeting.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A12)(http://tinyurl.com/2678bd)
1976 Nov 9, The UN General
Assembly approved ten resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa,
including one characterizing the white-ruled government as
"illegitimate."
(AP, 11/9/00)
1976 South Africa's Surgeon
General, Major N.J. Nieuwoudt, hired Dr. Wouter Basson to work for the
SADF's medical military unit known as the 7th SAMS Battalion. Under Dr.
Basson, head of the chemical and biological and weapons program, black
prisoners were killed by injections. In 2000 Johan Theron, a former
special forces officer, testified how he flung the victim’s corpses
from an airplane into the Atlantic between 1979 and 1987. Theron and
Gen. Fritz Loots had decided that there were too many guerrillas of the
South West African People’s Organization in the prison camps.
(SFC, 5/5/00,
p.A18)(www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/south_africa/2.html)
1977 Aug 18, In South Africa Steve
Biko and Peter Jones were picked up by police at Grahamstown. They were
arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967.
Biko suffered a major head injury while in police custody, was chained
to a window grille for a day and died on Sep 12.
(WSJ, 2/6/97,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko)
1977 Sep 11, Steve Biko was found
by a guard to be semiconscious and foaming at the mouth. A doctor
ordered him transported 750 miles to a prison hospital in Pretoria.
(WSJ, 2/6/97, p.A9)
1977 Sep 12, In South Africa
Steven Biko died while under police custody. He headed the Black
Consciousness Movement and was the country’s best known political
dissident. He was detained and held in Port Elizabeth and later driven
naked in a truck 700 miles to Pretoria where he died in a prison cell.
In 1997 the five police officers involved in his detention filed for
amnesty. They were retired Col. Harold Snyman, retired Lt. Col. Gideon
Nieuwoudt, Ruben Marx, Johan Beneke, and then Capt. Daantjie Siebert.
In 1999 former Detective Sgt. Gideon Nieuwoudt was denied amnesty
because he denied any crime. This killing was the breaking point and
led to international protests and a UN imposed arms embargo.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 2/6/97, p.A9)(AP,
9/12/97)(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.A23)(MC, 9/12/01)
1977 Dec 14, The South African
government eased job restrictions on blacks.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1977 South Africa prepared to
detonate a nuclear device in the Kalahari desert, but the plans were
detected by a spy satellite and cancelled under int'l. pressure led by
Pres. Jimmy Carter. The events were later described by Seymour M. Hersh
in "The Samson Option."
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A3)
1977 US Rev. Leon H. Sullivan
(d.2001 at 78) drafted guidelines (the Sullivan Principles) to help
persuade American companies to treat their workers in South Africa the
same way as in the US.
(SFC, 4/26/01, p.A6)
1977 South African police shut
down the Christian Institute founded by anti-apartheid Afrikaner cleric
Beyers Naude (1915-2004).
(Econ, 9/18/04, p.89)
1977 The United Nations imposed an
arms embargo against South Africa to pressure it to end apartheid.
(WSJ, 12/19/03, p.A8)
1978 May 4, The South African Air
Force (SAAF) engaged in air to ground combat at the Battle of Cassinga
in Angola.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Border_War)
1978 Sep 12, The first annual "Day
of Martyrs" was held in South Africa to remember those who gave their
lives in the struggle against apartheid.
(http://tinyurl.com/3xydbn)
1978 Sep 20, John Vorster, prime
minister of white-ruled South Africa since 1966, announced his
resignation.
(AP, 9/20/03)
1978 Sep 28, P.W. Botha
(1916-2006) began serving as Prime Minister of the apartheid regime of
South Africa. In 1984 he became president and continued until 1989.
(SFC, 9/18/96,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Willem_Botha)
1978 Donald Woods escaped to
Britain where he waged a campaign for South African democracy.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A15)
1979 May 19, The Regents of the
Univ. of California asked General Motors to stop doing business with
the police and military forces in South Africa.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
1979 Jun 4, South African Pres.
Vorster resigned due to scandal. Marais Viljoen became the last
non-executive State President of South Africa and served until
September 3, 1984.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marais_Viljoen)
1979 Sep 7, The Karoo National
Park in South Africa was proclaimed. It officially opened on September
12.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96,
p.60)(www.sanparks.org/about/news/default.php?id=43)
1979 Sep 22, A 2-3 kiloton
thermonuclear device was set off in the waters off Bouvet Island, a
little-visited possession of Norway located between the bottom of South
Africa and the Prince Astrid Coast of Antarctica. The list of suspects
quickly narrowed to South Africa and Israel.
(SFCM, 9/25/05,
p.6)(www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/israel/nuke-test.htm)
1979 Dec 16, In South Africa
Eugene TerreBlanche gave instructions to some 40 men to tar and feather
Van Jaarsveld at the University of South Africa, after Van Jaarsveld
had delivered a paper calling for the abolition of the Day of the
Covenant.
(SFC, 6/16/99,
p.B2)(www.doj.gov.za/trc/media/1999/9905/p990510a.htm)
1979 South Africa privatized
Sasol, a coal-to-liquids facility, and listed it on the Johannesburg
Stock Exchange.
(WSJ, 8/16/06, p.A12)
1981 Sep, Salomon Brothers merged
with Phibro Corp. and dumped 62 partners including Michael Bloomberg.
He received $10 million and went on to start a financial information
empire. South Africa’s AngloAmerican mining conglomerate, owned 27.3%
of Phibro's stock through Anglo's subsidiary, the Minerals and
Resources Corporation (Minorco).
(SFC, 10/16/04,
p.C1)(http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1981/09/anglo.html)
1981 Nov 10, In South Africa
Durban human rights attorney Griffiths Mxenge was found slain. Mxenge
was stabbed 46 times by a police death squad that included Dirk
Coetzee. In July 1985 his wife Victoria Mxenge was attacked by four men
in the driveway of her home in Umlazi, Durban. She was stabbed and shot
shortly after disembarking from a family friend’s vehicle.
(SFC, 7/18/96,
p.E3)(http://campus.ru.ac.za/index.php?action=category&category=932)
1981 Nadine Gordimer, 1991 Nobel
Prize winner, authored "July’s People." It was set in a futuristic
South Africa roiling from racial revolution. In 2001 it was struck from
the approved reading list for the 12th grade by the Education
Department of Gauteng.
(WSJ, 4/20/01, p.A14)
1981 Pieter-Dirk Uys (b.1945),
South African writer, brought his newspaper character Evita to life in
the theater. He had begun using the character to write critical
commentary on apartheid in the late 70s.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A27)
1982 Mar 14, South African police
bombed the London offices of the African National Congress. Gen'l.
Johann Coetzee commander of apartheid police and 8 officers received
amnesty in 1999. Col. Eugene de Kock testified in 1998 that he blew up
a building belonging to the African National Congress in London and
received a Star of Excellence medal approved by Pres. Botha.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A12)(SFC, 10/16/99,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_in_South_Africa)
1982 Mar 31, In South Africa
Nelson Mandela and 3 others were transferred from Robben Island to
Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. Mandela had spent 18 years on Robben
Island.
(www.sabcnews.com/features/walter_sisulu/timeline.html)
1982 Aug 17, Ruth First, an exiled
anti-apartheid activist, was killed in Mozambique from a letter bomb
sent by agents of the Nationalist South African government. In
1997 her daughter, Gillian Slovo, published "Every Secret Thing: My
Family, My Country."
(SFEC, 5/11/97, BR p.5)(SSFC, 2/10/02,
p.M6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_First)
1982 Nov 20, South Africa backed
down on a plan to install black rule in neighboring Namibia.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1982 Dec 19, Four bombs exploded
at South Africa's only nuclear power station in Johannesburg.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1983 Sep 10, John Vorster, prime
minister of white-ruled South Africa from 1966 to 1978, died in Cape
Town at age 67.
(AP, 9/10/99)
1983 The Organ and Tissue Act of
this year allowed officials to remove needed organs and tissues without
consent if reasonable attempts to locate the potential donor’s next of
kin had failed.
(NH, 10/98, p.51)
1983 The Booker Prize in
Literature was won by J.M. Coetzee of South Africa for his novel "Live
and Times of Michael K."
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.G2)
1983 In the Church Street bombing
a car bomb outside Air Force headquarters in Pretoria killed and
injured a number of people.
(WSJ, 7/17/00, p.A18)
1983 Didata, a South African
computer firm, was established.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.59)
1983-1985 Brig. Jack Cronje ran the Vlaakplaas
counter-insurgency unit.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A18)
1984 Feb 14, In South Africa under
Apartheid rule the Black community at Mogopa was displaced in a "force
removal" action. Some 300 homes and a cluster of community buildings
were bulldozed over.
(WSJ, 3/10/00, p.A1)
1984 Mar 16, Mozambique and South
Africa signed a pact banning support for one another’s internal foes.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1984 Oct 16, Desmond Tutu, black
Anglican Archbishop in South Africa, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his
decades of non-violent struggle for racial equality.
(SFC, 6/23/96, BR, p.32)(AP, 10/16/04)
1984 Dec 10, South African
Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize.
(SFC, 6/23/96, BR, p.32)(AP, 12/10/99)
1984 Breyten Breytenbach,
Afrikaner writer, authored "The True Confessions of an Albino
Terrorist," a memoir of his arrest and 7-year incarceration.
(WSJ, 10/4/99, p.A40)
1984 Sep-1993 Dec, In South Africa
some 19,000 people were killed in political violence during this period.
(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E1)
1984-1996 Fighting between the Inkatha and the ANC
was believed to have killed 14,000 people over this time.
(USAT, 6/25/96, p.10A)
1985 Mar 18, The 1st remote
location for ABC’s "Nightline" news was in South Africa.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1985-3/1985-03-18-ABC-19.html)
1985 Mar 21, Police in Langa
(Uitenhage), South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the
25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings; the reported death toll
varied between 29 and 43.
(AP,
3/21/08)(www.un.org/av/photo/subjects/apartheid.htm)
1985 Sep 9, President Ronald W.
Reagan issued Executive Order No. 12532 establishing sanctions against
South Africa. Reagan banned the sale of computers to South African
security agencies, barred most loans to the Pretoria government, halted
the importation of the Krugerrand, South Africa's gold coin (effective
Oct 11), and stopped exports of nuclear technology until South Africa
signs an accord to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
(www-tech.mit.edu/V105/N38/apart.38n.html)(http://tinyurl.com/2ruefg)
1985 Oct 11, President Reagan’s
ban on the importation of South African Krugerrands went into effect.
(http://tinyurl.com/2ruefg)
1985 Oct 18, Benjamin Moloisi
(30), South African poet, was hanged for his role in the 1982 murder of
a security policeman.
(http://tinyurl.com/2mubof)
1985 Eugene de Kock took over the
Vlaakplaas counter-insurgency unit and ran it until 1993. The existence
of the unit was only made public in 1989 and the full extent of its
activities were not revealed until the Truth Commission in 1994.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A18)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.A19)
1985 South Africa repealed laws
that prohibited interracial sex and marriage.
(http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/IES/southafrica.html)
1985 Two ANC activists and 8
others were killed in a raid into Lesotho. A government assassin told a
court in 1996 that plans for the raid were approved by the highest
levels of Pres. Botha’s apartheid regime.
(WSJ, 9/17/96, p.A1)
1985 Three Port Elizabeth
activists, the Pepco 3, were beaten and strangled at an unused police
station.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A19)
1985-1993 Dr. Mike Odendaal headed the microbiology
division at Roodeplat Research Labs (RRL), a biological research front
for the chemical and biological warfare program known as Project Coast.
(WSJ, 5/20/02, p.A1)
1986 Jan 6, In Johannesburg, South
Africa, Impala Platinum fired 20,000 black mine workers.
(http://tinyurl.com/lnq3m)
1986 Apr 14, Desmond Tutu was
elected Anglican archbishop of Capetown.
(http://tinyurl.com/lqrlx)
1986 May 19, South African
commandos struck alleged ANC "operational centers" in Zimbabwe,
Botswana, Zambia.
(www.iie.com/research/topics/sanctions/southafrica.cfm)
1986 Sep 7, Desmond Tutu was
installed as the Anglican archbishop of Capetown, the first black to
lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.
(AP, 9/7/97)
1986 Dec 1, In South Africa
National Congress supporter Dr. Fabian Ribeiro (b.1933) and his wife,
Florence, were assassinated.
(SFEC, 10/13/96,
p.A19)(http://sahistory.org.za/pages/people/ribiero-f.htm)
1986 Mark Mathabane authored
"Kaffir Boy," an account of the poverty, violence and racism under
apartheid. In 2000 his sister, Miriam Mathabane authored "Miriam’s
Song: A Memoir." The award-winning book was later frequently banned in
US schools due to two paragraphs describing child prostitution.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, BR p.7)(SFC, 4/12/07, p.A1)
1986 In South Africa 10 youths
were drugged and then blown to pieces with explosives. In 1999 Abraham
Joubert, former special forces commander, testified that he authorized
a plan for the slayings submitted by provincial special forces
commander Charl Naude. In 1999 3 police officers received amnesty for
their roles in the killings.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.C12)(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D3)
1986 Adriaan Vlok was appointed as
South Africa’s minister of law and order and still headed the ministry
when allegations surfaced in 1989 that police hit squads may have been
involved in the murder of more than 100 political activists.
(AP, 8/28/06)
1986 The Belhar Confession, a
Christian statement of belief originally, was written in Afrikaans and
adopted by the synod of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in South
Africa. It stressed racial and social inclusiveness.
(Econ, 10/18/08,
p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belhar_Confession)
1986 In Sweden Prime Minister Olaf
Palme was assassinated. In 1996 South African former police officer
Eugene de Kock said that Craig Williamson, a South African spy, was
involved in the murder.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.A12)
1987 Jan 21, A paramilitary force
killed 13 civilians in their sleep in the KwaMakutha Zulu
township (KwaZulu-Natal black homeland). In 1996 former defense
minister Magnus Malan and 20 others were charged with authorizing the
killing. The first six defendants of the Inkatha Freedom party were
acquitted by Judge Jan Hugo. Former intelligence officer Johan Opperman
admitted to planning the attack.
(SFC,7/18/96, p.E3)(SFC,10/11/96,
p.A16)(WSJ,10/11/96, p.A1)(SFC,10/12/96, p.A10)
1987 Apr 11, Invoking emergency
powers, the government of South Africa outlawed any action, word or
written document protesting the practice of detention without trials or
calling for the release of detainees.
(AP, 4/11/97)
1987 May 6, The London building
that housed the Congress of South African Trade Unions was bombed under
orders of the apartheid government of South Africa.
(SFC, 9/18/96, p.A11)
1987 Jul 15, In South Africa
Ashley Kriel, an anti-apartheid activist was killed. Police officer
Jeffrey Benzien later confessed to the killing and was absolved by the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1999.
(SFC, 2/19/99,
p.B12)(www.doj.gov.za/trc/decisions/1999/99_benzien.html)
1987 Nov 5, Govan Mbeki, an early
leader of the African National Congress, was released from Robben
Island prison after 24 years.
(www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pr/1980s/pr871105.html)(SFC,
8/31/01, p.A24)
1987 Nov 28, A South African
Airways Boeing 747 crashed into the Indian Ocean with the loss of all
159 people aboard.
(AP, 11/28/97)
1987 The film "Cry Freedom" was
made by Richard Attenborough. It covered the relationship of Steve Biko
and Donald Woods.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A15)
1988 Feb 29, South African
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other religious leaders were arrested while
kneeling near Parliament with a petition against government bans on
anti-apartheid groups. All were freed hours later.
(AP, 2/29/00)
1988 Mar 22, In Angola the battle
of Cuito Cuanavale changed the region's political landscape,
accelerating the independence of Namibia and the fall of apartheid in
South Africa. While the Cuban and Angolan forces claimed victory, South
Africa claimed it lost only 31 soldiers against 4,785 who fell on the
other side.
(AP, 3/22/08)
1988 Apr 12, Alan Stewart Paton
(b.1903), South African writer (Cry The Beloved Country), died. He
founded and served as president of the Liberal Party (1953-68).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/apaton.htm)
1988 Apr 13, In South Africa
Aubrey Jabulani Ndaba, from the Pietermaritzburg area, and Oscar
Maleka, from Soweto, were working for the armed wing of the African
National Congress when they died in firefights with security forces. In
2005 they became first of 477 missing people to be recovered.
(AP, 3/9/05)
1988 Apr, Albie Sachs was working
in Mozambique on legal guarantees that be part of the new South African
Constitution when a car bomb exploded that left him without a right arm.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, z1 p.7)
1988 Jun 11, Nelson Mandela spoke
at Wembley Stadium, London, for the Freedomfest.
(www.geetarz.org/reviews/misc/mandela-laser.htm)
1988 Jul, The apartheid regime in
South Africa, having entered into discussions with the ANC, agreed to
elections in Namibia in exchange for the withdrawal of Cuban troops
from Angola.
(AP, 3/22/08)
1988 Aug 31, The Khotso House was
bombed. In South Africa police chief Johan van der Merwe was instructed
to blow up the Johannesburg headquarters of the South African Council
of Churches, called Khotso House, for harboring anti-apartheid groups.
The bombing injured 21 people. He said in 1996 that the instructions
came from Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok, who told him that the
order came directly from Pres. P.W. Botha. In 1997 a document submitted
by Vlok said the order to destroy the headquarters came from Pres.
Botha. Col. Eugene de Kock testified in 1998 that he was called in by a
police general to blowup Khotso House. Vlok testified in 1998 that
Botha dictated the bombing. Vlok and van der Merwe were given amnesty
in 1999.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A9)(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A10)(SFC,
6/4/98, p.A12)(SFC, 7/22/98, p.A11)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A14)
1988 Nov 24, South Africa's
justice minister announced that Nelson Mandela would not be returned to
prison upon his recovery from tuberculosis, but would instead remain in
custody in another location.
(AP, 11/24/98)
1988 Dec 3, In South Africa 11
black funeral mourners were slain in Natal Province in an attack blamed
on security forces. The Trust Feed massacre was masterminded by
policeman Brian Mitchell. He was later convicted of 11 murders in the
botched assassination attempt and served less than five years of a
30-year sentence. He was freed from prison in 1996 by the
Reconciliation Commission.
(SFC, 12/11/96,
p.C3)(www.doj.gov.za/trc/media/1996/9607/s960725k.htm)(AP, 12/3/98)
1988 Dec, Stompie Seipei (14) was
kidnapped and killed by the Mandela United Football Club, the
bodyguards of Winnie Mandela. Jerry Richardson was convicted of the
murder and sentenced to a life sentence. In 1997 he reported to the
truth commission that Mrs. Mandela asked him to do it. Dr. Abu-baker
Asvat, who examined Stompie, was also murdered. The events were later
described in the 1997 book "Katiza’s Journey" by Fred Bridgland.
Bodyguard Katiza Cebekhulu in 1997 testified that he saw Winnie Mandela
plunge a shiny object into Stompie. Pelo Mekgwe, one of the 4 young men
brought to the Mandela house, testified in 1997 that chief bodyguard
Jerry Richardson ordered him to help kill Lerothodi Ikaneng, who
survived a cut throat.
(SFC, 9/17/97, p.C2)(SFC,11/26/97, p.C4)(SFC,
12/4/97, p.C2)(SFC, 11/30/99, p.A16)
1988 Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
assaulted and kidnapped a young activist and was later convicted on the
charges. Lolo Sono beaten and his body was never found. It was reported
that she played a role in as many as a dozen killings. In 1999 Jerry
Richardson, her former bodyguard, testified that he killed Koekie Zwane
on orders from Winnie Mandela.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.A8)(SFC, 11/30/99, p.A16)
1989 Jan, Abu Baker Aswat, a
Soweto doctor, was killed. Thulani Dlamini was later convicted and
sentenced to 25 years in prison. Dlamini testified in 1997 that Winnie
Madikizela Mandela paid him for the murder.
(SFC, 12/3/97, p.C2)
1989 Apr 27, In South Africa Frans
"Ting-Ting" Masango (1958-2009), an anti-apartheid activist, was
sentenced to death following the historic "Delmas Four" trial. He was
released in 1991 after the ANC was unbanned. In 2008 Peter Harris
authored “In A Different Time, the Story of the Delmas Four.”
(www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=802399)(AP,
9/21/09)
1989 Jul 5, South-African Pres
Pieter Botha visited ANC leader Nelson Mandela.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/etc/cron.html)
1989 Aug 14, South African
President P.W. Botha announced his resignation after losing a bitter
power struggle within his National Party.
(AP, 8/14/99)
1989 Aug 15, F.W. de Klerk was
sworn in as acting president of South Africa, one day after P.W. Botha
resigned as the result of a power struggle within the National Party.
(AP, 8/15/99)
1989 Sep 6, The National Party,
the governing party of South Africa, lost nearly a quarter of its
parliament seats to far-right and anti-apartheid rivals, its worst
setback in four decades.
(AP, 9/6/99)
1989 Sep 13, Desmond Tutu led the
biggest anti-apartheid protest march in S. Africa.
(www.iie.com/research/topics/sanctions/southafrica.cfm)
1989 Sep 20, F.W. de Klerk
(b.1936) was sworn in as president of South Africa. Frederik Willem de
Klerk was the last president (1989-1994) of Apartheid-era South Africa.
(AP,
9/20/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk)
1989 Oct 10, South African
President F.W. de Klerk announced that eight prominent political
prisoners, including African National Congress official Walter Sisulu,
would be unconditionally freed, but that Nelson Mandela would remain
imprisoned.
(AP, 10/10/99)
1989 Oct 15, South African
officials released eight prominent political prisoners, including
Walter Sisulu, a leader of the African National Congress.
(AP, 10/15/99)
1989 Dec 13, South African
President F.W. de Klerk met for the first time with imprisoned African
National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, at de Klerk's office in Cape
Town.
(AP, 12/13/99)
1989 Mary Benson, South African
anti-apartheid campaigner, wrote her autobiography: "A Far Point."
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.D5)
1989 Winnie Mandela sent a young
man to the mission of Paul Verryn, a Methodist minister, to try to trap
him into a sexual liaison. She then kidnapped 4 youths from the mission
and beat them until they agreed to accuse the minister of having sex
with them.
(SFC,11/27/97, p.B2)
1989 In South Africa Eugene de
Kock’s covert Vlakplaas unit began to be exposed in newspapers and
court proceedings.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A8)
1989 In South Africa Rev. Frank
Chikane almost died after his underwear was laced with poison. In 2007
Adriaan Vlok, former security minister, and Johann van der Merwe,
former police chief, faced charges of attempted murder.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.41)
1989 The African Management
Services Company (AMSCO) was formed in South Africa by the Int’l.
Finance Corp., the private sector arm of the World Bank, to help small
African firms become competitive. In 2004 Ayisi Makatiani took over the
leadership of AMSCO.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.58)
1990 Feb 2, In a dramatic
concession to South Africa's black majority, President F.W. de Klerk
lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free
Nelson Mandela.
(AP, 2/2/00)
1990 Feb 10, South African
President F.W. de Klerk announced that black activist Nelson Mandela
would be released the next day after 27 years in captivity.
(AP, 2/10/00)
1990 Feb 11, Nelson Mandela was
released from a South African prison after being detained for 27 years
as a political prisoner fighting against Apartheid.
(AP, 2/11/97)(HN, 2/11/99)
1990 Mar 16, South African
President F.W. de Klerk announced that exiled African National Congress
leaders could return home for talks with the white-led government.
(AP, 3/16/00)
1990 Mar, After UN-observed
elections the previous year, South Africa formally ceded sovereignty to
Namibia, generally known before independence as South West Africa.
(HNQ, 2/13/01)
1990 May 2, The government of
South Africa and the African National Congress opened their first
formal talks aimed at paving the way for more substantive negotiations
on dismantling apartheid.
(AP, 5/2/00)
1990 May 4, The South African
government and the African National Congress concluded historic talks
in Cape Town with a joint statement agreeing on a "common commitment
toward the resolution of the existing climate of violence."
(AP, 5/4/00)
1990 May 6, Former president P.W.
Botha quit South Africa's ruling National Party as a protest against
the apartheid reform program of his successor F.W. de Klerk.
(www.cnn.com/almanac/9805/06/)
1990 Jun 5, South African troops
plundered Mandela's dwelling.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1990 Jun 7, South African
President F.W. de Klerk announced he was lifting a four-year-old state
of emergency in three of the country’s four provinces, with the
exception of Natal.
(AP, 6/7/00)
1990 Jun 16, A crowd in the
Netherlands welcomed African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela,
who thanked them for staunch Dutch support for the anti-apartheid
movement.
(AP, 6/16/00)
1990 Jun 20, South African black
nationalist Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie, arrived in New York
City for a ticker-tape parade in their honor as they began an
eight-city US tour.
(AP, 6/20/00)
1990 Jun 26, African National
Congress leader Nelson Mandela addressed the U.S. Congress, asking for
"material resources" to hasten the end of white-led rule.
(AP, 6/26/97)
1990 Jun 30, African National
Congress leader Nelson Mandela visited Oakland, California, a day after
receiving a star-studded welcome in Los Angeles.
(AP, 6/30/00)
1990 Sep 23, South African
President F.W. de Klerk arrived in the US for talks with President
Bush.
(AP, 9/23/00)
1990 Sep 24, South African
President F.W. de Klerk met at the White House with President Bush.
(AP, 9/24/00)
1990 A letter bomb from a
pro-apartheid hit squad left Rev. Michael Lapsley maimed for life.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A18)
1990-1994 Over 5,000 people were killed in
KwaZulu-Natal province prior to the first all-race elections.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.C3)
1990-1998 In the Northern Province some 577 killings
were committed related to witchcraft.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.D3)
1991 Jan 13, Forty-two people were
killed in a brawl and stampede during a soccer match in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1991 Feb 1, South African
President F.W. de Klerk said he would repeal all remaining apartheid
laws.
(AP, 2/1/01)
1991 Feb 15, The government of
South Africa and the African National Congress announced an agreement
on terms of the ANC’s decision to suspend its armed struggle against
apartheid.
(AP, 2/15/01)
1991 May 13, South African black
activist Winnie Mandela and two co-defendants were convicted of
abducting four young black men and keeping them at her Soweto home.
After an appeal, Mrs. Mandela was ordered to pay a fine.
(AP, 5/13/01)
1991 Jun 17, The South African
Parliament abolished the Population Registration Act, the last major
apartheid law still in effect.
(AP, 6/17/01)
1991 Jul 2, The first national
conference of the ANC, since the organization was banned in 1960, began
in Durban, South Africa. Oliver Tambo, whose health was suffering,
handed over the presidency of the ANC to Nelson Mandela and assumed the
largely honorary post of national chairperson. Walter Sisulu was
elected deputy president.
(www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/tambo.html)(http://tinyurl.com/z63lx)
1991 Jul 9, The International
Olympic Committee readmitted South Africa.
(AP, 7/9/97)
1991 Jul 10, President Bush lifted
economic sanctions against South Africa, citing its "profound
transformation" toward racial equality.
(AP, 7/10/97)
1991 Jul 19, The South African
government acknowledged that it had been giving money to the Inkatha
Freedom Party, the main rival of the African National Congress.
(AP, 7/19/01)
1991 Aug 9, Hundreds of police
battled neo-Nazis as pro-apartheid extremists tried to stop a speech by
President F.W. de Klerk.
(AP, 8/9/01)
1991 Sep 4, President F.W. de
Klerk proposed a new constitution that would allow blacks to vote and
govern; the African National Congress rejected the plan, charging it
was designed to maintain white privileges.
(AP, 9/4/01)
1991 Sep 8, More than 40 people
were reported killed in factional fighting around Johannesburg, South
Africa.
(AP, 9/8/01)
1991 Sep 14, The government of
South Africa, the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom
Party signed a national peace pact.
(AP, 9/14/01)
1991 Oct 3, Arkansas Gov. Bill
Clinton entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
(AP, 10/3/01)
1991 Oct 3, South African author
Nadine Gordimer was named winner of the Nobel Prize in literature.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, BR p.3)(AP, 10/3/01)
1991 Ted Botha wrote "Apartheid in
My Rucksack."
(WSJ, 11/8/96, p.A12)
1991 South Africa signed on to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. South Africa had secretly built
several bombs but dismantled them before signing on to the NPT.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.23)
1991 Afrikaner nationalists led by
Prof. Carel Boshoff, son-in-law of the late PM Hendrik Verwoerd,
founded the Orania enclave in the desert of South Africa with a ban on
using black laborers for menial tasks.
(SFC, 11/25/02, p.A8)
1991 Winnie Mandela and Xoliswa
Falati were both convicted of assaulting and kidnapping Stompie Seipei
in 1988. Both received 6-year prison sentences. Mandela paid a $3,200
fine on appeal and Falati had her sentence reduced to 2 years.
(SFC,11/26/97, p.C4)
1991 Eugene TerreBlanche provoked
a street battle that left 3 people dead.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.B2)
1991 Charles D. Moody, Univ. of
Michigan vice-president for minority affairs, led a delegation to
bestow an honorary doctorate to Nelson Mandela. It had been awarded in
absentia in 1990.
(MT, Fall/99, p.16)
1992 Mar 17, White South Africans
approved constitutional reforms giving legal equality to blacks.
(HN, 3/17/99)
1992 Apr 13, Nelson Mandela
announced he would seek a divorce from Winnie.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/etc/cron.html)
1992 Jun 20, An enraged mob forced
South African President F.W. de Klerk to cut short a visit to the black
township of Boipatong, the scene of a massacre three days earlier.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1992 Aug 3, Millions of South
African blacks joined a nationwide strike against white-led rule.
(AP, 8/3/97)
1992 Sep 7, Troops in South Africa
fired on African National Congress supporters near the Transkei
homeland, killing 28 and wounding 200. 29 ANC protestors were killed in
the Bisho massacre by troops of the homeland of Ciskei. Major General
Marius Oelschig radioed the "open fire" command. He said that he was
convinced by officers on the seen that they were under danger of
imminent attack.
(WSJ, 9/10/96, p.A1)(SFC, 9/12/96, p.A14)(AP, 9/7/97)
1992 Sep 26, South African
President F.W. de Klerk and African National Congress leader Nelson
Mandela held their first meeting in three months, during which they
agreed on the urgent need for an interim government.
(AP, 9/26/97)
1992 Nov 28, In King William's
Town, South Africa, four people were killed, about 20 injured, when
black militant gunmen attacked a country club.
(AP, 11/28/97)
1992 Dec, Sol Kerzner,
multimillionaire, unveiled his $280 million Palace of the Lost City in
Sun City in the state of Bophuthatswana.
(Hem, 6/96, p.134)
1993 Mar 24, South African Pres
F.W. de Klerk admitted for the 1st time that his country had built 6
nuclear bombs, but that the weapons had been dismantled.
(AP, 3/24/03)
1993 Apr 10, Chris Hani, leader of
the South African Communist Party, was killed by Janusz Walus and Clive
Derby-Lewis. The 2 men appealed for amnesty in 1997. Amnesty was denied
and the 2 continued to serve life sentences
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A8)(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C3)
1993 Apr 13, Anti-apartheid
activists of the ANC killed 2 white brothers, Alistair and Glen Weakly,
who were on a fishing trip, in retaliation for the killing of Chris
Hani. The activists applied for and received amnesty in 1999.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D3)
1993 Apr 14, Millions of black
workers in South Africa went on strike to protest the slaying of
activist Chris Hani.
(AP, 4/14/98)
1993 Apr 14, Sam Ntombani,
ANC-secretary in Soweto South Africa, was shot to death.
(www.kulture.com/site/peopleSearch.cfm?mode=endDay&key=1404)
1993 Apr 24, Former African
National Congress president Oliver Tambo (75) died in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
(AP, 4/24/98)
1993 May 7, In South Africa,
representatives of 23 political parties signed a declaration of intent
to hold multiracial elections within a year.
(AP, 5/7/98)
1993 May 10, Nelson Mandela
[of the ANC] moved into the president’s office of South Africa.
(Hem. 1/95, p.19)
1993 Jun 2, South Africa's Supreme
Court upheld Winnie Mandela's conviction for kidnapping four young
blacks, but said she would not have to serve her five-year prison term.
(AP, 6/2/98)
1993 Jul 4, South African leaders
F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela received the Liberty Medal in a
ceremony outside Philadelphia's Independence Hall.
(AP, 7/4/03)
1993 Aug 25, Amy Biehl, Stanford
graduate and Fulbright scholar from Newport Beach, Calif., was slain
while attempting to drive black friends home to Guguletu outside Cape
Town. Four members of the Congress’ youth wing were arrested, convicted
and sentenced to 18-year jail terms. They later requested amnesty from
the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. In 1998 the 4 men convicted
of Biehl’s murder were given amnesty.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A8)(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.D1)(WSJ,
7/29/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/25/98)
1993 Sep 8, Black gunmen in South
Africa launched a series of attacks on black commuters, claiming two
dozen lives.
(AP, 9/8/98)
1993 Sep 23, The South African
parliament voted to allow blacks a role in governing.
(AP, 9/23/98)
1993 Sep 24, Addressing the United
Nations, Nelson Mandela asked the world community to lift economic
sanctions against South Africa, saying huge foreign investments would
help prevent unrest and build a multiracial democracy.
(AP, 9/24/98)
1993 Oct 8, The UN lifted
remaining economic sanctions against South Africa.
(www.anc.org.za/un/gm-93-94b.html)
1993 Oct 15, Nelson Mandela and
F.W. de Klerk were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their
efforts to end apartheid.
(AP, 10/15/98)
1993 Oct, Pres. De Klerk
authorized an attack in the Transkei Homeland on a house where arms
were allegedly stored. Five youths were killed while asleep by a death
squad. He claimed the attack was a military operation but in 1996
Eugene de Kock testified that de Klerk knew that a covert operation
would carry out the attack.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A8)
1993 Nov 18, Representatives of 21
South African political parties approved a new constitution.
(AP, 11/18/98)
1993 Nov 23, President Clinton
signed legislation lifting remaining US sanctions against South Africa,
and announced an initiative to spur investment in South Africa's black
private sector.
(AP, 11/23/98)
1993 Dec 6, Crimes committed up to
this date became eligible for amnesty as set up by special
constitutional legislation that set up the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission. A 1996 extension was requested to move the deadline to May
10, 1994.
(SFC, 10/19/96, A10)
1993 Dec 10, South African
President F.W. de Klerk and African National Congress leader Nelson
Mandela accepted their Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
(AP, 12/10/98)
1993 Breyten Breytenbach,
Afrikaner writer, authored "A Return to Paradise."
(WSJ, 10/4/99, p.A40)
1993 The Nobel Peace Prize was
awarded to Nelson Mandela and Frederic de Klerk of South Africa.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)
1993 South Africa renounced its
biological weapons program.
(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.A16)
1993 In South Africa Petrus
Matthews testified in 1998 how he and 8 members of the neo-Nazi
Afrikaner Resistance Movement erected a bogus roadblock to kill ANC
supporters. The pulled over 2 carloads of blacks and shot the victims
in a ditch.
(SFC, 6/1/98, p.A9)
1993 Wouter Basson was forced to
resign from the army after a government report linked him with making
poisons and chemical bombs for the army. In 1998 it was revealed that
an army project, Project Coast," plotted to poison Nelson Mandela with
Thallium to induce brain damage.
(SFC, 6/11/98, p.A11)(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A8)
1993 An attack on St. James Church
in Capetown by the ultra-radical Azanian People’s Liberation Army under
commander Daniel Mofokeng left 11 people dead. Mofokeng in 1997 refused
to either regret or apologize for the killings before the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.
(SFC, 10/8/97, p.A10)
1994 Jan 29, In South Africa,
Nelson Mandela kicked off his party's campaign for the country's first
multiracial elections.
(AP, 1/29/99)
1994 Mar 13, A South African
diplomat took over as leader of Bophuthatswana as the black homeland's
president, Lucas Mangope, was deposed.
(AP, 3/13/99)
1994 Mar 18, The South Africa
Goldstone Commission published a report which finally confirmed that
senior South African Police (SAP) officials had been involved in
supplying Inkatha with weapons and financial support.
(www.hrw.org/reports/1995/WR95/AFRICA-09.htm)
1994 Mar 28, In Johannesburg,
South Africa, ANC guards killed more than 50 people in violence that
erupted during a march by Zulu nationalists.
(AP, 3/28/99)(WSJ, 3/29/96, p.A-1)
1994 Apr 25, Terrorist bombers
struck twice on the eve of South Africa's first all-race election,
killing about a dozen people. Car bombs near voting stations killed 20
people. Afrikaner Nationalists led by Eugene Terre’Blanche were
responsible. In 1997 Clifton Barnard and Abraham Myburgh were sentenced
to 50 years in prison for the bomb blasts that killed 21 people. [see
12/24/96]
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A10)(SFC, 6/18/97,
p.A10)(SFC,10/24/97, p.D6)(AP, 4/25/99)
1994 Apr 26, Voting began in South
Africa's first all-race elections. Nelson Mandela won the presidency.
(AP, 4/26/99)(HN, 4/26/01)
1994 May 1, South Africa's first
all-race elections ended.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A12)
1994 May 2, Nelson Mandela claimed
victory in the wake of South Africa's first democratic elections;
President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1994 May 6, Nelson Mandela and his
ANC finally were confirmed winners in South Africa.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1994 May 9, South Africa's newly
elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black
president.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1994 May 10, Nelson Mandela was
sworn in as Prime Minister of South Africa. His ANC party earmarked $4
billion to be spent over ten years to help correct the land imbalance
largely due to the forced abandonment by blacks between 1950-80 when
about 3.5 million blacks were forcibly trucked off to ethnic
territories, often abandoning land, houses and cattle. It was later
declared that crimes committed under apartheid up to this time would be
considered for pardon under an amnesty act.
(WSJ,5/10/94)(WSJ, 5/17/96,p.A-10)(SFEC, 12/15/96,
p.C22)
1994 May 11, In South Africa the
Rand Supreme Court sentenced to death six white rightwing extremists
for the murder of four blacks, including an 11-year-old child, at a
roadblock near Randfontein on December 12, 1993.
(http://tinyurl.com/c77m9)
1994 May 25, The UN Security
Council lifted a 10-year-old ban on weapons exports from South Africa,
scrapping the last of its apartheid-era embargoes.
(AP, 5/25/99)
1994 Jun 7, The Organization of
African Unity formally admits South Africa as its fifty-third member.
(HN, 6/7/00)
1994 Oct 3, South African
President Nelson Mandela addressed the United Nations, urging the world
to support his country's economy.
(AP, 10/3/99)
1994 Oct 4, President Clinton
welcomed South African President Nelson Mandela to the White House.
(AP, 10/4/99)
1994 Oct 6, In an address to a
joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, South African President Nelson
Mandela warned against the lure of isolationism, saying the U.S.
post-Cold War focus should be on eliminating "tyranny, instability and
poverty" across the globe.
(AP, 10/6/99)
1994 Mary Benson authored the
biography: "Nelson Mandela: The Man and the Movement."
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.D5)
1994 South Africa’s government
adopted a plan to redistribute 30% of white-owned farmland to poor
blacks. At this time 87% of commercial farmland was owned by whites and
13% by blacks, the exact reverse of their proportion of the population.
This excluded the 4 million blacks making a bare living on subsistence
farms.
(Econ, 12/5/09, p.58)
1994 King Goodwill Zwelithini
broke with Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and tension between the
Zulu royal family and Inkatha escalated.
(SFC, 4/28/96, A-13)
1994 Dr. Nkosazana Zuma became the
first South African black minister of health.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.C3)
1994 Prudence Mabele became the
first black South African woman to admit being HIV-positive.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.A7)
1994 South Africa’s Shoprite
supermarket began expanding across Africa. In 2005 it was Africa’s
largest retailer with 700 shops in 16 countries.
(Econ, 1/15/05, p.62)
1994 South African Breweries (SAB)
moved into the China market.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.59)
1994 Chinese triads arrived in
South Africa seeking abalone to supply black markets in China, Taiwan,
Japan and Korea. Poaching soared and "Operation Neptune" was begun to
combat a feared extinction.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.C1)
1994-1995 South African Moses Sithole raped and
strangled 38 women in the Johannesburg area. He was sentenced in 1997
to more than 2,400 years in jail.
(AP,
1/13/04)(http://members.skcentral.com/html/articles.php?cat_id=13)
1995 Mar 25, A protest took place
in South Durban over the high pollution at the Engen oil refinery.
(SFC, 8/16/00, p.A17)
1995 May 10, One-hundred-four
miners were killed in an elevator accident in Orkney, South Africa.
(AP, 5/10/00)
1995 Jun 24, Nelson Mandela,
wearing a Springbok rugby shirt and baseball cap, presented the William
Webb Ellis Cup to South African captain Francois Pienaar following the
Springbok win over New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup. This was the
first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country. In
2008 John Carlin authored ”Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the
Game that Made a Nation.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Rugby_World_Cup)(Econ, 9/13/08, p.92)
1995 Jun, The death penalty was
abolished by the Constitutional Court.
(SFC, 4/23/97, p.A4)
1995 Nov, The first McDonald’s
restaurant opened in Johannesburg.
(WSJ, 10/22/98, p.B21)
1995 Dec 25, In South Africa
supporters of the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party carried out a
Christmas massacre where 18 supporters of the African National Congress
(ANC) were killed in the KwaZulu-Natal province. 600 members of
Inkatha, a Zulu nationalist group, were responsible. In 1998 5 of the
13 men convicted in the massacre were freed from prison.
(WSJ, 12/26/95, p. A-1)(SFC, 12/23/98, p.C2)
1995 Dec 26, Floods in eastern
South Africa killed at least 130.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)
1995 Nelson Mandela published his
autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom." In 1998 British journalist Martin
Meredith published a biography titled "Nelson Mandela."
(SFEC, 3/1/98, BR p.3)
1995 The first lion infected with
tuberculosis was discovered by Dewald Keet, chief veterinarian at
Kruger National Park. They picked up the disease from feeding on
infected Cape Buffalo, who picked it up from infected cattle herds.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.A12)
1995-2005 In South Africa Jacob Zuma was alleged in
2005 to have accepted over $596,000 from his friend and financial
advisor Schabir Shaik, during this period, for using his influence to
help secure government contracts for Mr. Shaik’s companies. Charges
against Mr. Zuma were dropped in 2009.
(Econ, 4/18/09, p.23)
1996 Feb, Afrikaner men attacked
300 black students protesting outside a primary school in rural
Trompsburg for admittance. The men chased away the youths while police
watched. three girls were severely injured and the angry students went
on a rampage. Afterwards white parents pulled their kids out of the
school rather than integrate it.
(SFC, 6/29/96, p.A12)
1996 Mar 19, Winnie Mandela
divorced Nelson after 38 years of marriage.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1996 Apr 25, Princess Nonhlanhla
Zulu disappeared during a gang attack on a royal residence in KwaMashu
black township near Durban, South Africa.
(SFC, 4/28/96, A-13)
1996 May 8, South Africa approved
a National Constitution that guaranteed equal rights for all races.
Zulu nationalists and white extremists boycotted the parliament vote
and the entire process. The Constitution contained a clause that
prevented discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.A-19)(WSJ, 5/9/96, p.A-1)(SFEC,
9/6/98, p.A22)
1996 May 9, In South Africa the
National Party withdrew from a national-unity government with Pres.
Mandela’s African National Congress.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-1)
1996 Jun 5, Anglican Church
leaders chose Rev. Njongonkulu Ndungane to succeed Desmond Tutu as the
archbishop for southern Africa.
(SFC, 6/6/96, C3)
1996 Jun 27, A report from the
World Health Organization said that South Africa has the worst
tuberculosis problem in the world and that drug-resistant forms
(XDR-TB) of the disease were spreading rapidly.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A12)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.58)
1996 Jul 5, In South Africa the
Anglo American Platinum Corp. fired an additional 7,000 striking
workers. That makes the total 28,261 fired workers since the strike
began June 25.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A4)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a
Big Mac in South Africa was $1.64.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Jul 13, Winter storms raged
across South Africa and snowdrifts up to 8-feet high blocked the main
road from Johannesburg to Durban.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A10)
1996 Jul 31, In South Africa
rush-hour crowds panicked when guards used electric prods to drive off
fare-beaters. At least 15 died and 65 were injured in a stampede.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A1)
1996 Aug 13, In South Africa
Nadthmie Edries, leader of a group called People Against Gangsterism,
was charged with sedition in connection with the vigilante slaying of a
drug-gang leader.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C1)
1996 Aug 17, It was reported that
900 million South African bees died this year. The Cape bees were
introduced in the north and threw off the breeding patterns of the
native bees. They were unable to endure the harsher climate and died.
Fruit farmers and native plants were put into severe jeopardy.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A4)
1996 Aug 26, Eugene de Kock,
former police colonel, was found guilty of 5 counts of murder. He still
faced 116 charges that included 3 for murder. He admitted to killing
about 65 people and was later sentenced to 212 years.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A1)(SFC, 12/11/98, p.A18)
1996 Aug 28, South Africa
announced an investigation into killings that have left 25 miners dead
in recent weeks at 4 gold fields.
(WSJ, 8/28/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 6, The high court
rejected the 140-page constitution in part because of the proposals for
a restructured senate. 3 months were allotted for changes.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A8)
1996 Sep 23, In South Africa 2
days of ethnic fighting among gold miners at Buffeslfontein left 18
people dead.
(WSJ, 9/24/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep, The government disclosed
that it was sending $18 million worth of arms to Rwanda.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.A16)
1996 Oct 11, In South Africa
former defense minister Magnus Malan and other members of the military
hierarchy were acquitted of charges in the massacre of 13 people in
1987. Judge Hugo said that evidence showed that Inkatha’s leader, Zulu
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, had in 1996 secretly requested assistance
from apartheid leaders for a paramilitary force against political
rivals but that the prosecution had not shown sufficient evidence
against the defendants.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A10)
1996 Dec 4, A new constitution was
given final approval. It would go into full effect in 1999.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C2)
1996 Dec 10, Pres. Nelson Mandela
signed the finished constitution, largely the work of Albie Sachs.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, z1 p.7)
1996 Dec 10, A policeman convicted
of 11 murders in a botched 1988 assassination attempt and serving a
30-year sentence was freed from prison by the amnesty panel.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 24, In Worcester, South
Africa, 2 pipe bombs killed 1 adult and 2 children in shopping areas.
The Boer Attack Troop claimed responsibility. in 1997 Jan van der
Westhuizen (44), Clifton Barnard (41) and Abraham Myburgh (24) were
convicted and given sentences of life in prison for the bombing that
killed 4 people.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A10)(SFC, 1/6/97,
p.A9)(SFC,10/24/97, p.D6)
1996 In the US Arthur Penn
directed the film "Inside." It focused on the abuses of the penal
system in South Africa just before and after the collapse of Apartheid.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, EM p.9)
1996 A census was conducted in all
11 of South Africa’s official languages. It revealed that over half the
population did not have running water in their homes.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.C2)
1996 Chief Khayelihle Mathaba of
the Mangethe tribe claimed the lands of the descendants of John Dunn
(d.1885) and tried to declare himself their chief.
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A9)
1996 The South Africa Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research patented the active chemical of
hoodia, called P57, and licensed development rights to a British firm.
They did not acknowledge the San Bushmen who used the cactus raise
energy and fight hunger. In 2003 an agreement was reached to pay the
San 6% of the royalties. Some 100,000 San lived in South Africa,
Botswana, Namibia and Angola.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.D5)
1996 The vigilante group People
Against Gangsterism and Drugs publicly lynched gang boss Rashaad
Staggie.
(SFC, 8/29/98, p.A12)
1996 Sbu Ndebele, premier of
KwaZulu-Natal, set up the Vukuzhake program to boost jobs and promote a
policy of “black economic empowerment” in poor communities. In 2009
Ndebele was appointed to be South Africa’s transport minister.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.49)
1996 The South Africa mining firm
Gencor acquired Billiton. In 2001 a merger with BHP created the
BHP-Billiton Group, the world’s largest mining company.
(WSJ, 11/18/05,
p.A8)(www.mineweb.net/sections/mining_finance/490641.htm)
1997 Jan 5, In Algeria Muslim
guerrillas massacred 16 in Ben Achour village.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 5, In South Africa police
arrested 2 white men in connection with 3 bomb blasts near
Johannesburg.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 28, Five former police
officers in South Africa admitted to killing anti-apartheid activist
Stephen Biko, who died in police custody in 1977. His death had been
officially listed as an accident.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1997 Jan 29, Wouter Basson,
retired brigadier general, was arrested for selling 1,000 tablets of
the drug Ecstasy to undercover police.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan, Eicker Henning ordered a
worker to tie Ndelwa Kepisi Mgaga to his truck. Henning dragged Mgaga
along a gravel road and left Mgaga to die. Henning was convicted in
2000 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A16)
1997 Feb 6, Mixed race rioters
protested in Eldorado Park. One died and more than 100 were injured.
(SFC, 2/7/97, p.A17)
1997 Apr, In South Africa
Eugene Terre'Blanche was convicted of attempted murder and assault in
1996 incidents. He led the radical wing of the Afrikaner nationalists
that set off bombs in 1994 that killed 21. In 1997 he was sentenced to
6 years in prison.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1997 May 10, The amnesty act was
extended to this date.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, p.C22)
1997 May 11, In South Africa some
8,000 people filed for amnesty to meet the deadline of the commission
for the investigation of apartheid-era crimes.
(WSJ, 5/12/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 22, In South Africa 5
killings in Magoda, Kwa Zulu / Natal Province, were suspected of being
caused an unknown "third force," a presumed right-wing group dedicated
to fomenting black-on-black violence.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A7)
1997 Jul, Max, a 400-pound
gorilla, beat up a fleeing armed robber, a former police officer, who
tried to hide in his cage at the Johannesburg Zoo. Max survived 3
gunshots.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.D2)
1997 Aug 26, Former Pres. Frederik
de Klerk announced his retirement from politics and his leading role in
the National Party.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.C2)
1997 Oct 28, The First National
Branch in Pretoria was robbed of $2,500. Mzwakhe Mbuli, a renowned
"people's poet," and 2 suspects were arrested shortly after the
robbery. Mbuli was convicted in 1999, but claimed that he was framed
due to his knowledge of government officials involved in drug
smuggling. He was given a 13-year jail term.
(SFC, 3/30/99, p.F3)(SFC, 4/23/99, p.D3)
1997 Dec 16, Pres. Mandela stepped
aside as leader of the African National Congress and was succeeded by
Deputy Pres. Thabo Mbeki. In 2005 William Mervin Gumede authored “Thabo
Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC.”
(SFC,12/17/97, p.A26)(Econ, 3/26/05, p.82)
1997 Dec 20, President Nelson
Mandela stepped down as leader of South Africa's governing African
National Congress. [see Dec 16]
(AP, 12/20/98)
1997 Dec 30, South Africa
established diplomatic ties with China and ended formal ties with
Taiwan.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A9)
1997 The film "Fools" was the
first South African feature film directed by a black South African,
Ramadan Suleman.
(SFEM, 9/28/97, p.17)
1997 Aspen Pharmacare, a generic
drug maker, was founded in Durban, South Africa. By 2005 it was the
country’s leading drug-maker with an annual revenue of $467 million.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.74)
1998 Jan 7, The attorney general
announced that former Pres. Peter Botha would be prosecuted for
refusing to appear before the Truth Commission and for hindering its
work.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Jan, In South Africa 6 white
police officers made a video tape showing a "training exercise" where
they incited their dogs to maul 3 black men and beat the victims if
they tried to protect themselves. The officers were arrested in 2000 on
charges of attempted murder. 4 officers pleaded guilty in 2001.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A17)(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.A1)
1998 Mar 19, Hundreds of black
demonstrators clashed with police as they marched on the Vryburg High
School. Some 2,500 residents of Huhudi township marched in support of
the students who said they no longer feel safe at school. A later
investigation revealed that the 140 black students were isolated from
the 750 white students in classrooms and facilities.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A18)(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B3)
1998 Mar 26, President Clinton
stood with President Nelson Mandela in a racially integrated South
African parliament to salute a country that was "truly free and
democratic at last."
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A13)(AP, 3/26/99)
1998 Mar 28, President Clinton,
during his visit to South Africa, went to Soweto, a landmark in the
bloody uprising against apartheid, to honor South Africans "who
answered the call of conscience" and defeated their country's system of
white supremacy.
(AP, 3/28/99)
1998 Apr 11, In Benoni Nicholas
Steyn (42), a white farmer, shot Francina Diamina (11) and her 6-month
old cousin, Angelina, for trespassing. The baby was hit in the head and
killed and Francina was wounded in the back. Steyn was convicted of
culpable homicide in 1999. Steyn was given a suspended sentence in 1999
and freed.
(SFC, 4/18/98, p.A8)(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A14)(WSJ,
3/24/99, p.A1)
1998 Apr 15, It was reported that
Fanagalo, a pidgin tongue based on Zulu, English and Afrikaans, was
still being used by miners, despite industry and government efforts
stamp it out.
(WSJ, 4/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 20, The Goldman
Environmental Awards were presented to six winners in SF. The prizes
were increased to $100,000. Sven "Bobby" Peek (31) of South Africa won
for fighting for the rights of poor people in industrialized South
Durban.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A8)
1998 Apr 29, Pres. Mandela named
Siphiwe Nyanda as the first black to head the nation’s armed forces.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A10)
1998 May 8, The National Sports
Council asked the world to boycott South African Rugby in a move to
push for the resignation of Louis Luyt, the league’s president, over
racist and corrupt practices.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A10)
1998 May 10, Louis Luyt announced
his resignation as the president of the South African Rugby Football
Assoc.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun, Four bombings occurred
in the center of Cape Town and attributed to rival gangs.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.T8)
1998 Jul 10, In South Africa 8
people were gunned down in the Kwa-Zulu-Natal town of Richmond. Pres.
Mandela spoke out against the police after another 15 were killed with
no arrests. 40 people had been killed since May.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A8)(SFC, 7/28/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 18, South African
President Nelson Mandela capped his 80th birthday by marrying Graca
Machel, the widow of a Mozambican president and black liberation leader.
(AP, 7/18/08)
1998 Jul 31, The Truth and
Reconciliation Commission closed down after 2 years of hearings. A
report was due in October.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 21, Former Pres. Botha
(82) was convicted of ignoring a subpoena to testify about apartheid
atrocities in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He was
fined $1,577 and given a suspended 1 year jail sentence.
(SFC, 8/22/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 25, In South Africa a
bomb exploded in a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Cape Town and killed
one person and injured 24. A group called Muslims Against Global
Oppression claimed responsibility. One injured man died 10 days later.
(SFC, 8/26/98, p.A8)(SFC, 9/4/98, p.D4)
1998 Oct 28, In South Africa the
3,500 page report of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee was
formally handed over from Desmond Tutu to Pres. Mandela. It was based
on years of testimony from the people who ran the 1960-1994
white-government and their victims.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct, Parliament approved one
of the world’s toughest anti-smoking laws.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.C3)
1998 Oct, Former Pres. F.W. de
Klerk completed his divorce with Marike de Klerk and married his
companion Elita Georgiades, the former wife of Tony Georgiades, Greek
shipping magnate.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A6)
1998 Dec 1, A rally of 82 vintage
cars entered Cape Town after a 39 day, 18,600 mile journey that began
in London.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.C12)
1998 Dec 15, In South Africa a
tornado killed 13 people in Umtata. Pres. Mandela narrowly escaped
injury while shopping there.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.C3)
1998 Dec 22, In South Africa Gugu
Dlamini (36), an AIDS activist, died from wounds inflicted by a mob.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.A7)
1998 A South Africa court struck
down the law against sodomy.
(SSFC, 5/25/03, p.A12)
1999 Jan 23, In South Africa
Sifiso Nkabinde, leader of the small United Democratic Movement party,
was shot and killed in Richmond. Later gunmen in the same town killed
11 people who backed the ANC.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A7)
1999 Jan 28, In Cape Town, South
Africa, a bomb exploded at the main police station and wounded 11
people. It was the 3rd bombing in 5 months.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)
1999 Feb 4, It was reported that a
$650 flamethrower, invented by Charl Flourie, was available for
installation on cars to protect against carjackers.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A11)
1999 Feb 10, In South Africa a
helicopter crashed on the roof of an office building in Cape Town and
all 4 people aboard were killed.
(SFC, 2/11/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 16, In South Africa the 4
policemen charged with the fatal beating of Steve Biko were denied
amnesty.
(WSJ, 2/17/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 3, From South Africa it
was reported that 3.6 million people, one in eight adults, were
carrying the AIDS virus by the end of 1998. This compared with 2.7
million in 1997.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C5)(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 9, In South Africa a
gunman killed Patata Nqwaru, vice chairman of the local United
Democratic Movement in Cape Town.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A13)
1999 Mar 17, Allan Boesak (53), a
leading anti-apartheid activist, was convicted of stealing money from
foreign donors intended for the Foundation for Peace and Justice. He
was later sentenced to 6 years in prison for theft and fraud.
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A13)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 25, In South Africa
Wouter Basson, the former head of chemical and biological warfare
dubbed "Doctor Death," was indicted on 64 charges that included murder,
theft and fraud. Conspiracy charges for offenses in Namibia, Swaziland,
Mozambique and Britain were later dismissed. 61 charges remained.
Basson was acquitted of 46 counts of murder, fraud and drug dealing in
2002.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A16)(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A12)(SFC,
4/12/02, p.A8)
1999 Apr 20, In South Africa the
police beating of 4 carjacking suspects was broadcast over TV. One
suspect died from the beating and the officers were suspended and put
under criminal investigation.
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.A13)
1999 May 11, Authorities found
over 7 tons of arms, ammunition and explosives in KwaZulu-Natal
province. It was believed to have been amassed by former police
commander Eugene de Kock.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.C3)
1999 May 14, In South Africa the
ruling African National Congress signed a peace pact with the
arch-rival Inkatha Freedom Party.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)
1999 May 21, In South Africa a
principal and teacher opened fire on students who were throwing stones
angered by field trip fees. Sithembiso Gcwenya (19) was killed and 2
students were wounded near Scottburgh on the Indian Ocean.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A12)
1999 May, President Nelson Mandela
handed the Schmidtsdrift San communities almost 13,000 hectares of
farmland, including Platfontein, near Kimberley. The Schmidtsdrift San
are members of the !Xun and !Khwe tribes who were employed by the
former SA Defence Force in its war against the South West African
People's Organization (Swapo) during the eighties. When Namibia gained
independence in 1990, the San soldiers were given the option to move to
Schmidtsdrift with their families. The !Xum and Khwe Bushmen pooled
government allowances and purchased the Platfontein Farm.
(http://tinyurl.com/l62ne)(Econ, 4/15/06, p.50)
1999 Jun 2, An appeals court set
aside the contempt conviction against former Pres. P.W. Botha based on
a technicality.
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.C5)
1999 Jun 2, In South Africa Pres.
Mandela set this date for elections. Thabo Mbeki, the deputy of Pres.
Mandela, was expected to win. The ANC headed for victory with 62.2%
support after half the votes were counted. The final count showed a
65.7% win. The Congress Party trailed a rival black party in
KwaZulu-Natal province. The ANC won 266 seats, one shy of a two-third
majority.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.C3)(SFC, 6/3/99, p.A12)(SFC, 6/4/99,
p.D2)(SFC, 6/7/99, p.A11)(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A12)
1999 Jun 13, In South Africa Pres.
Mandela welcomed visiting Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy as his last
official guest. Khadafy was on his first foreign tour since sanctions
were lifted in April.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A13)
1999 Jun 15, The Truth Commission
granted amnesty to Eugene TerreBlanche after he made full disclosure
for his apartheid-era crimes.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.B2)
1999 Jun 16, Thabo Mbeki took the
oath as president of South Africa, succeeding Nelson Mandela. Mbeki
soon appointed Jacob Zuma, chairperson of the ANC, as deputy president.
(AP, 6/16/00)(www.anc.org.za/people/zumaj.html)
1999 Jul 29, In South Africa some
300,000 workers staged a public sector strike and demanded a 10% pay
hike.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.D3)
1999 Jul 29, Simon Mahlathini
Nkabinde, lead groaner of the Mahlathini and the Mohatella Queens, died
at age 62. The group performed together from 1964-1997 and popularized
mbaqanga music.
(SFC, 7/31/99, p.A17)
1999 Aug 8, Tito Mboweni was
inaugurated as governor of the South African Reserve Bank.
(WSJ, 3/29/00, p.A1)
1999 Aug 16, In South Africa
thousands of state workers stayed home from work and some 10,000 Telkom
and post office workers demonstrated in Pretoria and other cities.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 24, In South Africa an
estimated 100,000 workers joined marches across the country in a
one-day strike for wage increases.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A16)
1999 Aug 29, In South Africa a
heavy storm in Cape Town left 4 people dead and some 5,000 homeless.
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.A14)
1999 Sep 15, The government
reported that it would purchase $3.5 billion in arms over the next 8
years in exchange for investments in the country.
(SFC, 9/16/99, p.A13)
1999 Sep 27, In South Africa a bus
of British tourists overturned as it approached Lydenburg and 27 people
were killed.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.C16)
1999 Oct 11, South Africa and the
European Union signed a free-trade pact.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.C16)
1999 Oct 18, Nelson Mandela
visited Israel for the 1st time in an effort to end enmity between the
Jewish state and the African National Congress. Israel had supported
the apartheid government in South Africa.
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A13)
1999 Oct 25, The 31st Booker Prize
in Literature was won by J.M. Coetzee of South Africa for his novel
"Disgrace." He became the 1st author to win the prize twice. He won in
1983 for the novel "Live and Times of Michael K."
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.G2)
1999 Oct, The policy manual for
South Africa’s national prosecuting authority was released. The
authority took over cases that left over from the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.
(www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No53/Chap4.html)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.41)
1999 Nov 4, At Empangeni rival
minivan taxi operators waged a gun battle that left at least 10 people
dead and 24 wounded.
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.A17)
1999 Nov 28, In South Africa a
pipe bomb injured at least 43 people at St. Elmo's pizza restaurant in
Camps Bay, just south of Cape Town.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A12)
1999 Dec 14, In South Africa
Clarence Mlokoti (69), co-founder of the Kaizer Chiefs soccer team, was
killed during an attempted car-jacking in Soweto.
(SFC, 12/16/99, p.C2)
1999 Dec 24, In South Africa 7
policemen were injured after responding to a bomb threat in Cape Town.
(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 29, In South Africa
police arrested 3 members of a Muslim vigilante gang and seized bomb
materials linked to recent bombings near Cape Town.
(WSJ, 12/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Breyten Breytenbach,
Afrikaner writer, authored "Dog Heart: A Memoir," a look at South
Africa since the 1994 elections.
(WSJ, 10/4/99, p.A40)
1999 Nadine Gordimer authored
"Living in Hope and History: Notes from Our Century."
(SFEC, 12/12/99, BR p.5)
1999 South Africa’s Pres. Thabo
Mbeki created Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), better known as
the Scorpions. It was a crime-fighting unit of the National Prosecuting
Authority (NPA) set up to fight corruption and organized crime. In 2008
the government planned to disband the unit and merge it into the police
force.
(Econ, 10/15/05, p.48)(Econ, 5/10/08, p.56)
1999 Mark Shuttleworth of South
Africa sold Thawte, a company that made digital certificates and
security software to support internet commerce, to VeriSign for over
$500 million.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.33)
1999 Taddy Blecher and 3 partners
founded CIDA City Campus in Johannesburg, South Africa. The university
charged only $21 per month for tuition. The official inauguration was
held on Nov 8, 2002.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.63)
1999 In South Africa a wine buyer
suggested the vinification of a Rhone-style blend called Goats do Roam
owned by Charles Back.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.F2)
2000 Jan 10, In South Africa there
was a rock fall at the African Rainbow Minerals gold mine. 9 miners
were rescued after 4 days, but 4 were found dead and two were feared
dead.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.D2)
2000 Feb 11, In South Africa it
was reported that at least 19 people had died and 12 were feared
drowned after torrential rains hit the northern province of Mpumalanga.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A9)
2000 Feb 18, The telephone
company, Telkom, announced that it would buy and distribute 5 million
condoms to its employees in an effort to fight AIDS which had infected
some 13% of the adult population.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 26, Heavy rains continued
to ravage South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. 33 people
were reported dead in the northern province of South Africa and 29 dead
in Zimbabwe.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A22)
2000 Mar 2, Dr. Larry C. Ford
committed suicide just days after a botched assassination attempt on
his business partner at Biofem Inc., of Irvine, Calif. Ford had met
with scientists from South Africa's Project Coast in the 1980s to
discuss chemical and biological warfare under Wouter Basson, head of
the project. Project Coast, which has been accused of trying to create
deadly bacteria that would only affect blacks, poisoning opponents'
clothing and stockpiling cholera, HIV and anthrax, opened an offshore
bank account to pay Ford. In 2002 former FBI informant Peter
Fitzpatrick told "60 Minutes" that Ford passed a bag filled with
cholera, typhoid, botulism, anthrax and bubonic plague to a South
African military doctor during a meeting at the house of the South
African trade attache in California.
(AP, 11/3/02)
2000 Mar 25, In South Africa a
flashflood down the Storms River Gorge left 7 dead and 6 missing from a
group of 24 whitewater enthusiasts.
(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A12)
2000 May 28, Themba Khoza, member
of parliament and leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, died of AIDS at
age 41.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.D5)
2000 Jun 19, Mary Benson, writer
and anti-apartheid campaigner, died at age 80. Her work included a
2-volume history of the African National Congress.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.D5)
2000 Jun 23, A Panamanian
registered tanker sank off Cape Town, South Africa and at least 1,300
tons of seeped out. Oil began to soak the local penguins at Robben
Island.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A16)
2000 Jul 9, The 13the Int’l. AIDS
Conference convened in South Africa. Pres. Thabo Mbeki opened the
conference and insisted that poverty was a greater enemy than the AIDS
virus. Hundreds of delegates walked out.
(SFC, 7/7/00, p.A1)(SFC, 7/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 14, In South Africa
Nelson Mandela closed the 13th Int’l. Conference on AIDS with a call
for scientists to set aside differences with Pres. Thabo Mbeki and to
concentrate on fighting the disease.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul, Nkosi Johnson (10), a
victim of AIDS, spoke to int’l. delegates and implored South Africa to
provide HIV-positive pregnant women with anti-retroviral drugs to block
transmission of the virus to children at birth. Johnson died June 1,
2001 at age 12.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A18)(SFC, 6/2/01, p.A8)
2000 Aug 26, In Sasolburg, South
Africa, black employee John Mosoko Rampuru (37) died after being
dragged behind a pickup for over 3 miles by white building contractor
Pieter Odendaal (44). On November 12, 2001, the Bloemfontein High Court
sentenced Odendaal to 10 years in jail after finding him guilty of
culpable homicide but not murder with intent. Judge AP van Coller
suspended 3 years of Odendaal's sentence and freed him on bail pending
appeal.
(SFEC, 9/10/00,
p.C12)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1651683.stm)
2000 Sep 13, The government
announced war with the Muslim vigilante group, PAGAD, People Against
Gangsterism and Drugs, following a series of bombings.
(SFC, 9/14/00, p.C7)
2000 Nov 17, In South Africa 11
workers died from a fire while apparently locked in a floor polish
factory in Lenasia.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.C16)
2000 Dec 1, On World AIDS Day the
government agreed to accept a $50 million donation of the drug
fluconazole from Pfizer to treat a brain inflammation associated with
AIDS. Recent approval was also given for nevirapine, a drug to reduce
transmission of the AIDS virus to a fetus.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 5, In South Africa 7
people were killed at 2 polling stations during the 2nd all-race
municipal elections. The elections slashed the number of municipalities
from 843 to 284 with 6 mega cities, each presided by a single mayor.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) won at least 59% of the
contests.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A18)(WSJ, 12/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 15, Pres. Mbeki spoke at
a MERCOSUR meeting in Brazil and planned to begin negotiations to join
the trading block.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B2)
2000 Dec 18, Edmund Ntemi Piliso,
jazz musician, died at age 75. He led the Alexandra All-Star band in
Sophiatown in the 1950s.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B5)
2000 In South Africa the
Johannesburg consortium “Business Against Crime” moved its Cueincident
program, a video-monitoring system of the central business district, to
the Carlton building. Crime soon began to decline and people moved back
into the area.
(Econ, 4/8/06, Survey p.11)
2000 South Africa ranked as the
world’s 8th largest wine producer. Its output was roughly in line with
Germany.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, p.T6)
2001 Jan 6, It was reported that
cholera had sickened some 13,000 people in KwaZulu-Natal and had killed
at least 53.
(SFC, 1/6/01, p.D8)
2001 Jan, A single lightning bolt
killed 14 people huddled in a hut in Kwa-Zulu-Natal province.
(WSJ, 2/1/00, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, New AIDS statistics
indicated that 25% of the adult population, one of every 9 people, was
infected with HIV.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A13)
2001 Apr 11, In Johannesburg 43
people were killed in a stampede at a soccer game in Ellis Park
Stadium. Over 150 were injured.
(SFC, 4/12/01, p.A12)
2001 May 8, In South Africa 12
miners were killed in a gold mine explosion.
(WSJ, 5/9/01, p.A1)
2001 May 18, Shareholders of De
Beers, a giant diamond company, approved a move the privatize the
company. Shares would be delisted June 1 and the company will be taken
over by DB Investments, a consortium owned by the Oppenheimer family,
Anglo-American and Debswana.
(SFC, 5/19/01, p.C3)
2001 May 24, US Sec. of State
Colin Powell traveled to South Africa as part of his 4-nation African
tour to promote the fight against AIDS.
(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.A11)
2001 May 25, US Sec. of State
Colin Powell spoke to students at the Univ. of Witwatersrand and called
on Pres. Mugabe of Zimbabwe to submit to free elections next year.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.B12)
2001 Jun 1, Nkosi Johnson (12), a
victim of AIDS, died. In 2000 he had spoken to int’l. delegates and
implored South Africa to provide HIV-positive pregnant women with
anti-retroviral drugs to block transmission of the virus to children at
birth.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A18)(SFC, 6/2/01, p.A8)
2001 Jun 26, In Washington Pres.
Bush met with South Africa Pres. Thabo Mbeki and defended Mbeki’s
efforts to combat AIDS.
(SFC, 6/27/01, p.A10)
2001 Jun 28, Queen Modjadji V, the
"rain queen" of the Bolobedu tribe, died at age 64.
(SFC, 7/5/01, p.D3)
2001 Jun, Members of the Pan
African Congress began collecting $3 from poor people in exchange for
small parcels of vacant land in Bredell, 12 miles northeast of
Johannesburg. A week later the government condemned the PAC and
arrested people for trespassing.
(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A14)
2001 Jul 10, The government
ordered the demolition of shacks on the occupied land in Bredell. 1-2
thousand shacks were expected to be destroyed.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A15)
2001 Jul 30, In South Africa
Catholic bishops denounced condoms as "immoral and misguided" weapons
against AIDS.
(SFC, 7/31/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 19, Donald Woods (67),
former Daily Dispatch editor and apartheid opponent, died in Sutton,
England.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A15)
2001 Aug 30, Govan Mbeki, the
father of Pres. Thabo Mbeki, died at age 91. He authored the book
"South Africa: The Peasant’s Revolt" while imprisoned on Robben Island.
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.A24)
2001 Aug 31, The UN World
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance began in Durban, South Africa.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 1, In Durban, South
Africa, a variety of African leaders at the UN World Conference Against
Racism demanded apologies, and in some cases financial reparations,
from Western countries that benefited from slavery and colonization of
African countries for over 3 centuries. Activists at the conference
developed a strategy, later known as “BDS,” that included boycotts,
divestments and sanctions, to push their agenda.
(SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A12)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.74)
2001 Sep 2, Dr. Christiaan Barnard
(78), South African cardiologist, died in Paphos, Cyprus. He performed
the world’s 1st human heart transplant in 1967, authored a
distinguished text on cardiology, a scandalous autobiography and 4
minor novels.
(SFC, 9/3/01, p.A15)(AP, 9/2/02)
2001 Sep 3, The US delegates
pulled out of the UN Conference on Racism due to extremist diatribes
against Israel by Arab nations.
(SFC, 9/4/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 7, In Durban the UN
Conference on Racism went into overtime and agreed on a deal. The
conference acknowledged that slavery and the slave trade were crimes
against humanity, expressed an apology and offered a package of
economic assistance to Africa. A deal on the Middle East was not yet
reached.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 8, In South Africa the UN
World Conference on Racism ended and agreed to condemn the "barbarism"
of the slave trade, proposed an aid package for Africa, recognized
Palestinian rights and Israeli security concerns, opposed bias against
ethnic minorities, refugees, indigenous peoples and women.
(SSFC, 9/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 3, In South Africa ANC
leader Tony Yengeni was charged with corruption, forgery and perjury
linked to the country’s $6 billion arms deal with Europe.
(SFC, 10/4/01, p.C4)
2001 Oct 15, In South Africa
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela, was
indicted for fraudulent loans of more than $100,000.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2001 Nov 26, Joe Modise (72),
former defense minister (1994-1999), died.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A22)
2001 Nov 27, The predominantly
white New National Party (NNP) joined into a coalition with the ruling
African National Congress (ANC).
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 4, In South Africa Marike
de Klerk (64), former wife of former Pres. F.W. de Klerk, was found
stabbed and strangled in her luxury apartment near Cape Town. Police
arrested Luyanda Mboniswa (21), a security guard, on Dec 5. The guard
confessed Dec 7. In 2003 DNA evidence linked him to the murder.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A6)(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A6)(SFC,
12/8/01, p.A7)(AP, 4/8/03)
2001 Dec 13, It was reported that
83 vanadium miners at the Vantech Tech. mining operations in Steelport
were let go between 1998 and 2001 after suffering respiratory problems.
Vantech was a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Xstrata.
(SFC, 12/13/01, p.E2)
2001 Dec 30, In South Africa an
open truck carrying families on a pilgrimage to ancestral graves,
overturned on a steep hill and 48 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A7)
2001 South Africa decided to
overhaul its mining laws and began laying out specific targets for its
Black Economic Empowerment program.
(WSJ, 11/18/05, p.A8)
2001-2005 Property prices in South Africa rose by an
average of 20% a year.
(Econ, 5/6/06, p.46)
2002 Jan 29, In South Africa
Doctors Without Borders defied patent law and imported a generic AIDS
drug from Brazil.
(WSJ, 1/30/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 5, In Durban, South
Africa, a commuter train collided with a freight train and 18 people
were killed.
(SFC, 2/6/02, p.A9)
2002 Feb 9, In South Africa
Bulelani Vukwana (29), shot and killed his girlfriend and 9 others
before killing himself in Mdantsane suburb of East London.
(SFC, 2/11/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 24, It was reported that
scientist David Rasnick had agreed to inject himself with HIV and that
computer scientist Philip Machanick agreed to take a cocktail of
anti-HIV drugs for the rest of his life in a test over the cause of
AIDS.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 25, A Pretoria high court
ruled that the government must provide the anti-AIDS drug
nevirapine to all public hospitals with the capacity to use it.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A6)
2002 Apr 11, A white judge
acquitted Dr. Wouter Basson ("Dr. Death"), former head of the chemical
and biological weapons program, of 46 counts murder, fraud and drug
dealing following a 2 ½ year trial.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 25, A Russian rocket
blasted into orbit with Mark Shuttleworth (28) of South Africa, who
paid $20 million for the trip to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 4/26/02, p.A15)
2002 Apr 27, Steve Tshwete (64),
security minister, died. He had been arrested in 1963 and sentenced to
15 years on Robben Island, where he spent time with Nelson Mandela.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A24)
2002 May 6, Daan Goosen, South
Africa scientist, passed a vial of genetically engineered bacteria to a
retired US CIA officer and offered an entire collection of pathogens
developed in SA bio-weapons research for $5 million and immigrations
permits for 19 associates and family members. The deal collapsed.
(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.A16)
2002 Jun 17, In South Africa Lulu
Petersen said she hoped a class-action lawsuit against foreign
companies that dealt with the racist, white regime would finally bring
her family justice.
(AP, 6/17/02)
2002 Jun 25, South Africa's
parliament passed a landmark bill aimed at transforming the country's
mining industry by giving the government control of mineral rights.
(AP, 6/26/02)
2002 Jul 2, A former South African
policeman killed four people and wounded nine during a shooting rampage
in a small town in the Northern Cape province.
(AP, 7/3/02)
2002 Jul 8, African leaders
gathered in South Africa to form the new African Union and to bid
farewell to the Organization of African Unity, a much-criticized
regional body formed nearly four decades ago to usher the continent out
of colonialism.
(AP, 7/8/02)
2002 Jul 9, African leaders in
Durban, SA, launched the African Union, an ambitious new body intended
to pull the beleaguered continent out of poverty and conflict.
(AP, 7/9/03)
2002 Jul 10, The first summit of
the African Union ended with lofty promises of a new era of economic
development and good government on a continent plagued by poverty and
oppression.
(AP, 7/10/02)
2002 Jul 14, A passenger bus
overturned and burst into flames after hitting a cow, killing at least
18 people in South Africa's Eastern Cape province.
(AP, 7/15/02)
2002 Aug 26, The 4th UN World
Summit on Sustainable Development opened in Johannesburg, SA, with a
call from South African President Thabo Mbeki for coordinated
international action to fight poverty and protect the world's natural
resources. Pres. Bush sent Colin Powell as his stand-in. The 3rd
gathering was in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
(SSFC, 8/25/02, p.A3)(AP, 8/26/03)
2002 Aug 26, As Zimbabwean and
Ethiopian activists staged protests, South African security officials
promised to clamp down on any protesters demonstrating at the U.N.
development summit without government approval.
(AP, 8/26/02)
2002 Aug 27, In South Africa
delegates to the World Summit on Sustainable Development called for
increased global efforts to bring new agricultural technologies to poor
farmers to help feed the developing world.
(AP, 8/27/02)
2002 Aug 28, Delegates at the
World Summit on Sustainable Development focused on ways to bring fresh
water and sanitation to hundreds of millions of people who lack access
to either. Negotiators hailed their first breakthrough: a deal to
protect the world's oceans and marine life.
(AP, 8/28/02)
2002 Aug 29, The World Summit on
Sustainable Development focused on ways business and governments could
work together to spread prosperity in the developing world while
protecting the environment.
(AP, 8/29/02)
2002 Aug 31, In South Africa some
10,000 people marched from a township of tin shacks and open sewers to
the glittering venue of a U.N. development summit to protest that world
leaders are not doing enough to fight poverty.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Sep 2, At the UN Earth Summit
in South Africa negotiators agreed on a global plan to reduce the use
of oil and switch to other cleaner and more efficient forms of energy.
(SFC, 9/3/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 4, The World Summit on
Sustainable Development closed with just a handful of small victories
and some promising new initiatives. Colin Powell was heckled and the US
was viewed as a key obstacle to setting firm targets on many issues.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an
anti-corruption scheme to oversee oil production, was launched by UK PM
Tony Blair, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg, SA.
(AP, 9/5/02)(SFC, 9/5/02,
p.A10)(www.osi-az.org/eitiabout.shtml)
2002 Sep 10, In South Africa the
highest court ruled that gay couples have the right to adopt children
and laws that prevent them from doing so violate their constitutional
rights.
(AP, 9/10/02)
2002 Sep 13, In South Africa the
Italian ship, the Jolly Rubino, that ran aground within the
boundaries of the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park, began leaking oil and
was in danger of breaking up, according to conservation officials and a
salvage company.
(AP, 9/13/02)
2002 Sep 28, In South Africa a
commuter bus veered off a road and flipped several times down a
mountain pass, killing 21 people and injuring 52 in the Eastern Cape.
(AP, 9/28/02)
2002 Oct 1, In South Africa tens
of thousands of workers blew whistles and sang protest songs as they
marched in a nationwide strike protesting the government's
privatization plans.
(AP, 10/1/02)
2002 Oct 30, A series of bomb
blasts rocked the poor township of Soweto, SA, killing one person,
ripping a hole in a mosque and damaging several railway stations and
rail lines running into the nearby city of Johannesburg. The Boeremag
(Afrikaner Power) was believed responsible.
(AP, 10/30/02)(SFC, 11/2/02, p.A7)
2002 Oct 30, Nine people, mostly
Canadian or British tourists, were killed and at least 10 more injured
when their bus crashed in South Africa, police said.
(Reuters, 10/30/02)
2002 Nov, 52 governments ratified
and adopted the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme setting up an
internationally recognized certification system for rough diamonds and
establishing national import/export standards. This followed meetings
that had begun in Kimberley, South Africa, in 2000. The scheme was
fully implemented in August 2003.
(www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/diamond/kimberlindex.htm)
2002 An internal South African
position paper on argued that half of all new mining rights and
30% of existing one should be black-owned within a decade. The report
leaked to the media and caused the Johannesburg stock market to plunge.
(WSJ, 11/18/05, p.A8)
2002 South African Breweries
bought America’s Miller Brewing for $5.6 billion.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.64)
2002 Over 21,000 people were
murdered in South Africa this year.
(Econ, 10/11/03, p.52)
2003 Jan 7, In South Africa a
passenger train collided with a freight train, killing 10 people and
injuring 49.
(AP, 1/7/03)
2003 Jan 20, In South Africa an
execution-style attack at a Cape Town house used as a gay massage
parlor killed eight men and badly wounded two.
(AP, 1/20/03)
2003 Mar 21, A South African
commission that investigated the crimes of the era recommended
that the government pay compensation totaling $348 million to more than
21,000 victims of apartheid-era abuses.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Apr 6, In Capetown, SA,
Roxanne Dickson (5) became the 7th child to die from gang violence in
the last month. Some 280 gangs operated in Western Cape, a province of
about 3 million people, 5 percent of whom are believed to belong to
gangs.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 25, In South Africa
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the fiery anti-apartheid leader and ex-wife
of former President Nelson Mandela, was sentenced to four years in
prison for her conviction on fraud and theft charges.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 May 1, In South Africa a bus
believed to be carrying about 90 people plunged into a reservoir in
South Africa. 10 survivors were rescued outside the town of Bethlehem.
51 people were killed.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 5, In South Africa Walter
Sisulu (b.1912), anti-apartheid hero, died. He brought Nelson Mandela
into the ANC and together with Oliver Tambo formed the ANC Youth League
in 1944.
(AP, 5/6/03)
2003 Jul 9, Pres. Bush met with
South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria for discussions on
AIDS, the war on terror, trade issues and to seek common ground in
their attempts to deal with the political and economic crisis in
neighboring Zimbabwe. Pleading for patience, President Bush, continuing
his Africa tour, said the United States would "have to remain tough" in
Iraq despite attacks on U.S. soldiers. Bush said he was "absolutely
confident" in his actions despite the discovery that one claim he'd
made about Saddam Hussein's weapons pursuits was based on false
information.
(AP, 7/9/03)(SFC, 7/10/03, p.A3)(AP, 7/9/04)(AP,
7/9/08)
2003 Aug 7, F.T. Prince (90),
South African poet, died in Southampton, England. His work included the
WWII poem "Soldiers Bathing."
(SFC, 8/13/03, p.A23)
2003 Aug 19, South African police
and the FBI arrested Craig Michael Pritchert, 41, and Nova Ester
Guthrie, 28, in Capetown. The couple are suspected of armed robberies
in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, and Oregon between
1993 and 1996.
(AP, 8/21/03)
2003 Sep 2, Two South China
tigers, the first ever to leave the country, arrived in South Africa as
part of a project to save the endangered species.
(AP, 9/3/03)
2003 Oct 2, South Africa's J.M.
Coetzee, whose stories tell of innocents and outcasts oppressed by the
cruel weight of history, won the 2003 Nobel Prize for literature. His
books included "Dusklands" (1974), "In the heart of the Country"
(1977), "Waiting for the Barbarians" (1980), "Life and Times of Michael
K" (1983) and "Disgrace" (1999).
(AP, 10/2/03)(WSJ, 10/14/03, p.D10)
2003 Nov 19, South Africa said it
would provide free AIDS drugs.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R12)
2003 Nov 29, Beyonce Knowles,
Bono, Peter Gabriel and other musicians from around the world took to
the stage for an AIDS benefit concert hosted by former South African
President Nelson Mandela.
(AP, 11/30/03)
2003 In South Africa Ben Sassman
launched Internet dating service for people with HIV/AIDS.
(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.54)(www.thepositiveconnection.co.za)
2004 Jan 1, Pres. Thabo Mbeki of
South Africa joined Pres. Aristide for Haiti’s independence
celebrations.
(WPR, 3/04, p.29)
2004 Jan 1, In South Africa a
minibus full of British and Canadian tourists headed to a scenic
mountain area crashed, killing eight Britons and the pedestrian.
(AP, 1/1/04)
2004 Jan 9, In South Africa Pres.
Mbeki signed the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act. It imposed
a host of obligations on companies that wished to do business with the
government.
(www.labour.gov.za/useful_docs/doc_display.jsp?id=9479)(Econ, 4/8/06,
Survey p.8)
2004 Jan 29, Widespread drought
was reported across southern Africa. Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa and
Zimbabwe were all affected.
(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A16)
2004 Jan, General Motors announced
the purchase of a 51% share of Delta Motors, South Africa’s 4th largest
car firm.
(Econ, 2/14/04, p.62)
2004 Mar 29, Margaret McCord Nixon
(87), South-African-born author of "The Calling of Katie Makanya"
(1997), died in Venice, Ca.
(SFC, 4/13/04, p.B7)
2004 Apr 10, Some 11% of South
Africans, 5 million people, were reported to be infected with AIDS. An
earlier government report said 100,000 civil servants were HIV positive.
(Econ, 4/10/04, p.39)
2004 Apr 14, South Africans of all
races voted for a new government for the third time in a decade. The
African National Congress, the party that led them out of apartheid,
won nearly 70% of the vote.
(AP, 4/14/04)(WSJ, 4/15/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/16/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 23, President Thabo Mbeki
was elected unopposed for a second term. He pledged to fight poverty
and improve opportunities for all South Africans after his party scored
its biggest victory yet in a decade of multiracial democracy.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr-2005 Mar, Statistics for
this period showed that 18,793 people were murdered in South Africa, an
average of 51 a day in a nation of 47 million.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2004 May 9, Brenda Fassie (39),
South Africa's first black pop star, who gave a voice to
disenfranchised blacks at the height of apartheid, died of
complications from an asthma attack.
(AP, 5/10/04)
2004 May 31, Ousted Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his family received a first-class
diplomatic welcome from South Africa, his new home in exile.
(AP, 5/31/04)
2004 Jul 13, In an Ohio court De
Beers ended a 60-year impasse and agreed to pay a $10 million fine for
the price fixing of industrial diamonds.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.60)
2004 Aug 9, Officials in South
Africa prepared to kill some 30,000 ostriches following the deaths of
over 1,500 due to avian influenza.
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.A3)
2004 Aug 24, In South Africa Mark
Thatcher, the son of former British PM Margaret Thatcher, was arrested
and charged with helping to finance a foiled coup attempt in oil rich
Equatorial Guinea. Thatcher was later fined three million rand
(approximately $500,000) and received a four-year suspended jail
sentence. In 2008 Equatorial Guinea issued an international arrest
warrant against Mark Thatcher, accusing him of being an instigator of
the abortive coup plot.
(AP,
8/25/04)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Thatcher)(FP, 3/29/08)
2004 Sep 3, In South Africa Johan
Meyer (53), head of a engineering company, was charged with trafficking
in nuclear-related materials that could be used to make weapons of mass
destruction.
(AP, 9/3/04)
2004 Sep 15, South Africa formally
recognized the pro-independence government in the annexed Moroccan
territory of Western Sahara, prompting Rabat to recall its ambassador
from Pretoria in protest.
(AP, 9/16/04)
2004 Nov 7, The NYC Marathon was
won by Hendrik Ramaala of South Africa in 2:09:28; Paula Radcliffe won
the women's title in 2:23:10.
(WSJ, 11/8/04, p.A1)
2004 R.W. Johnson authored “South
Africa: The First Man, The Last Nation,” a history of South Africa.
(Econ, 10/23/04, p.84)
2004 South Africa launched the
Mzansi bank account, a basic account designed to bring citizens into
the nation’s financial system. In May, 2005, it won its millionth
customer.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.77)
2004 The government of South
Africa launched Project Consolidate, an effort to help troubled
municipalities by sending them managers from comparatively well-run
cities.
(Econ, 3/4/06, p.44)
2004 In South Africa the
Incwala mining firm was born out of Lonwin Platinum (Lonplats), the
world’s 3rd largest platinum producer. It was a product of South
Africa’s black economic empowerment policy.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.72)
2004 South Africa reported some
19,000 murders for the year, about 9 times the rate in the US and 27
times the rate in Britain.
(Econ, 10/1/05, p.44)
2004 Mark Shuttleworth of South
Africa began funding the Ubuntu project, which made a user-friendly
version of Linux, an open source operating system.
(Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.33)
2005 Jan 1, South Africa was
forecast for 3.3% annual GDP growth with a population at 47.1 million
and GDP per head at $4,110.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.94)
2005 Jan 6, In South Africa former
Pres. Nelson Mandela announced that his son, Makgatho Mandela, had died
of illness related to AIDS.
(SFC, 1/7/05, p.A10)
2005 Feb 11, In South Africa Thabo
Mbeki gave his state of the nation speech. He called for faster
economic growth and a quicker transfer of wealth from white to black
pockets.
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.45)(www.info.gov.za/speeches/son/)
2005 Feb 18, The government of
south Africa said the number of deaths increased by 57 percent in the
five years ending in 2003, with AIDS and related illnesses among the
leading causes in adults. The rate is far lower than that reported by
world health groups.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb, Some 40 current and
former South African lawmakers were arrested on fraud charges for
falsifying travel expenses.
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.46)
2005 Mar 7, Officials in South
Africa's capital voted to rename the city Tshwane, retaining the name
Pretoria for the city center only.
(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 9, In South Africa
investigators began digging up the first of hundreds of unmarked graves
in a bid to close a chapter in South Africa's horrific history.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 9, An earthquake shook
parts of northern South Africa, trapping 16 miners underground.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 11, South Africa’s Pres.
Mbeki nominated Pius Langa to become chief justice when incumbent
Arthur Chaskalson retires in May. Langa would be the 1st black to hold
the office.
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.54)
2005 Mar 13, In Musina, South
Africa, thousands of protesters held an 18-hour vigil on the border
with Zimbabwe to demonstrate against mounting repression in the
neighboring country two weeks before a key parliamentary election there.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 23, In South Africa some
21,000 Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. mineworkers went on strike after
mediation efforts with the union over pay and working conditions failed.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Apr 9, In South Africa the
federal council of the New National Party, the successor to the
National Party that led apartheid, overwhelmingly approved the party's
dissolution at a meeting in Johannesburg. The National Party, which
came to power in 1948, presided over 48 years of systematic and often
brutal oppression of the country's black majority, who were denied the
right to vote or to mix with whites.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 May 21, In South Africa
several hundred people, most of them white, demonstrated to protest a
proposal to change the capital's name from Pretoria, the name given to
it by white settlers, to Tshwane, as the site was once known to its
original African inhabitants.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In South Africa 7
teenage girls drowned in a rip tide off the east coast and a boy was
missing after a beach outing turned tragic when the swimmers ventured
out before lifeguards were on duty.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 26, The South Africa
state agency responsible for names of towns and cities approved plans
to rename the capital of Pretoria as Tshwane.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May, South Africa’s ruling
ANC issued a paper suggesting that the nations massive unemployment,
estimated at over 40%, could be reduced if the labor market was more
flexible.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.49)
2005 Jun 2, Schabir Shaik, the
financier of the African National Congress during its struggle to end
apartheid, was convicted of corruption by a South African court. He was
found to have given Jacob Zuma over $100,000 in bribes from a French
arms company. Shaik served 2 years and 4 months of his 15 year sentence
before he was freed in 2009, supposedly on medical grounds.
(AP, 6/2/05)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.51)
2005 Jun 10, In South Africa Pius
Langa (66), a former shirt factory worker was handed the chief
justice's robes at a ceremony marking the appointment of the first
black South African to head a court system assailed by allegations of
racism.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 12, In South Africa
Makobo Modjadji (27), the famed rain queen of the Bolobedu people, died
of unspecified causes.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 14, President Thabo Mbeki
dismissed his deputy Jacob Zuma, after he was implicated in a
corruption scandal, throwing wide open the question of who will become
the next leader of South Africa. Mbeki soon picked Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka, his minister for minerals and energy, to replace Zuma.
(AP, 6/14/05)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.46)
2005 Jun 27, South African trade
unions staged a one-day nationwide strike to protest high unemployment
and job losses, with employers reporting a mixed response at job sites
and tens of thousands of protesters marching in major cities.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 28, Swedish truck and bus
maker Volvo AB said it will close an assembly plant in Botswana and
open a new factory in Durban, South Africa.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jul 11, A SA government
report said more than 6.5 million of South Africa's 47 million people
could be infected with HIV.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 15, In South Africa a
passenger bus plunged down a ravine near the southcentral coast,
killing at least 24 people.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Aug 7, Thousands of miners
stopped work for the first strike in South Africa's key gold sector
since 1987 after wage negotiations collapsed last week.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 9, South Africa’s
Johannesburg Women’s Jail reopened its doors as a museum.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.74)
2005 Aug 11, The two unions
representing 90,000 striking South African gold miners agreed to accept
management's latest offer and return to work, ending the worst strike
in 18 years in the world's largest gold-producing nation.
(AP, 8/11/05)
2005 Aug 30, South Africa's
foreign ministry called a halt to its role as peace mediator in
strife-torn Ivory Coast, saying it was in "no mood" to consider new
demands from rebels threatening to boycott October elections.
(AP, 8/30/05)
2005 Aug 31, A South African
inventor unveiled a new anti-rape female condom that hooks onto an
attacker's penis and aims to cut one of the highest rates of sexual
assault in the world.
(Reuters, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, Conservationists in
South Africa unveiled a $30 million plan to save the great apes of
Africa, which are under threat of extinction from man and disease. The
plan designated 12 sites in five countries for emergency programs:
Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Sep 22, South Africa's
government moved for the first time to seize land from a white farmer,
saying that negotiations to buy the property to hand over to black
claimants were taking too long.
(AP, 9/22/05)
2005 Sep 27, In South Africa Brett
Kebble (41), a mining entrepreneur, African National Congress supporter
and cultural philanthropist, was found shot to death in Johannesburg.
His business dealings had come under scrutiny. Drug trafficker Glen
Agliotti was implicated in the murder. Jackie Selebi, South Africa’s
chief of police, later admitted to being a friend to Agliotti.
(AP, 9/28/05)(Econ, 1/19/08, p.50)
2005 Sep 30, In South Africa Mark
Scott-Crossley, a white farmer convicted in the murder of one of his
former black workers, was sentenced to life in prison. Co-defendant
Simon Mathebula was sentenced to 15 years. In Jan 31, 2004, Nelson
Chisale (41), who had been fired two months earlier for apparently
running a personal errand during work hours, was beaten with machetes,
tied up, driven to a nearby lion reserve, and thrown over the fence.
(AP, 9/30/05)
2005 Oct 17, South Africa's
government vowed to press ahead with legislative attempts to take
greater control of the nation's diamonds and weaken the grip of
diamond-producer De Beers, dismissing arguments that this could disrupt
global markets and lead to job losses.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 25, A panel of experts
highlighted the darker side of South Africa's booming wildlife industry
and recommended a total ban on "canned hunting" — the release of
captive-bred animals to be killed for sport with no chance of escaping
their human predators.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Oct 27, South Africa said the
G8, the world's richest nations, should allow duty- and quota-free
access to all products from poor countries without demanding anything
back as part of a deal on global trade.
(Reuters, 10/27/05)
2005 Oct 28, In South Africa
former President Nelson Mandela launched the first edition of a series
of comic books about his life aimed at encouraging young South Africans
to read.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Oct, Oando, a Nigerian energy
group, became the first company from another African country to be
listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE).
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.72)
2005 Nov 4, South Africa's former
deputy president was indicted on a corruption charge in a scandal
involving his financial adviser and two French arms companies. Jacob
Zuma, who had been seen as President Thabo Mbeki's successor, was fired
in June after being implicated in the scandal involving his financial
adviser and friend, Schabir Shaik.
(AP, 11/5/05)
2005 Nov 10, In South Africa the
southern hemisphere's largest single optical telescope with the power
to study the most distant galaxies was inaugurated. The giant eye in
the sky, that took five years to build, cost $20 million.
(AP, 11/10/05)
2005 Nov 12, Africa Union leaders
from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Senegal met in
Abuja for a 2-day summit titled: "Africa and the challenges of the
global order: Desirability of union government," with the leaders
discussing the broad principles of integration.
(AFP, 11/12/05)
2005 Nov 14, Iraqi and US troops,
trying to stem the flow of insurgent fighters from Syria, launched a
dawn assault on a border town killing 37 militants. Police in Baghdad
said a car bomb detonated near one of their patrols outside a gate
leading into the fortified Green Zone, killing two South Africans.
(AP, 11/14/05)
2005 Nov 29, In South Africa the
mother of Deon van der Walt (47), acclaimed opera singer, found her son
in his bedroom with two gunshot wounds to his chest. She also found her
husband with a gunshot wound to the temple and a gun by his side. The
family lived on a wine estate in the town of Paarl, just outside Cape
Town.
(AP, 11/30/05)
2005 Dec 1, South Africa's highest
court ruled it is unconstitutional to prevent gay people from marrying,
paving the way for the country to become the first to legalize same-sex
unions on a continent where homosexuality remains largely taboo.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 6, South Africa charged
ex-Deputy Pres. Jacob Zuma with rape.
(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.A1)(Econ, 12/10/05, p.56)
2005 Dec 7, The governing African
National Congress accepted the withdrawal of Jacob Zuma, its popular
deputy president from leadership duties for the duration of his rape
trial.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 14, In South Africa
several hundred Sesotho-speaking Soweto orphans on a beach holiday
clashed with police in Durban after officers failed to arrest several
Zulu-speaking youths who accosted 4 girls and threatened rape.
(SFC, 12/17/05, p.A9)
2005 In South Africa a survey
estimated that between 1994 and 2004, 942,303 people were evicted from
their homes on farms, which are often part of their employment package,
compared to 737,114 the previous decade. Some 2.9 million people worked
on farms and 950,000 lived on them, it estimated. The Confederation of
South African Trade Unions blamed many of the evictions on the trend
toward turning farms into luxurious golf estates, safari lodges and
tourist accommodation in preparation for the 2010 World Cup.
(AP, 2/10/07)
2006 Jan 18, Gervan Lubbe, a South
African inventor, was reported to have developed an anti-malaria
wristwatch to help combat one of Africa's biggest killers by monitoring
the blood of those who wear it and sounding an alarm when the parasite
is detected.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Feb 12, In South Africa
British PM Tony Blair, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
and 5 other leaders pledged to push for a new global trade deal that
will help poor countries. The 2-day summit in Hammanskraal was the 7th
meeting of center-left leaders since the Progressive Governance Network
was created in 1999 by Blair and former US president Bill Clinton. Also
attending were South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, South Korean PM Lee
Hae-Chan, Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi, Swedish PM Goeran Persson and New
Zealand PM Helen Clark.
(AFP, 2/12/06)
2006 Mar 2, In South Africa early
results put the ruling African National Congress well ahead in local
elections, despite voter unhappiness with the rate of progress in
improving the lives of poor blacks.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, South Africa joined a
growing list of countries inviting Hamas leaders for talks, raising
Israeli concerns that the international front against the Islamic
militants is crumbling.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 4, Final results showed
that South Africa's governing African National Congress won two-thirds
of council seats in local elections. President Thabo Mbeki vowed to
repay the confidence shown by voters in the ruling African National
Congress and speed up delivery of services to millions of poor blacks.
(AP, 3/4/06)(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 29, In South Africa a
fire swept through a downtown Johannesburg building, killing 12 people
and injuring 33 others trapped inside by locked security gates and
belongings piled in passageways.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar, In South Africa a
program was launched to train 375 traditional healers to test patients
for AIDS, keep records, and refer patients to clinics for
antiretroviral drugs.
(WSJ, 5/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar, In Soweto, South Africa,
construction began on the black-owned $96 million Maponya Mall, the
first of its kind in the township.
(AFP, 5/20/06)
2006 Apr 3, A senior South African
policeman went on a shooting rampage in Johannesburg, killing eight
people, including a 2-year-old baby, before being shot dead by
colleagues. A pedestrian was killed during a police chase of the
suspect.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 7, It was reported that
some AIDS patients in South Africa were choosing cash disability grants
over advanced AIDS drugs in order to sustain their families.
(WSJ, 4/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr, In South Africa the
government unveiled a project to build a luxury, four-star hotel at
Freedom Square in Soweto.
(AFP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 3, The Alexandros T, a
bulk carrier, sank off the South African coast with 33 crewmen. The sip
sank in heavy seas on its way from Brazil to China. Five managed to
reach life rafts in time and one was rescued with a life vest.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 5, In South Africa
Anthony Wakaba Mutheki, a Kenyan-born artist who once hawked his works
for as little as $1 apiece, was reported to have become one of Africa's
hottest young talents, fetching up to $12,000 for his paintings.
(Reuters, 5/5/06)
2006 May 8, A judge acquitted
former Deputy President Jacob Zuma of rape in a politically charged
trial that left in tatters his aspirations to lead South Africa.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 18, In South Africa a
one-day national strike organized by the main trade union movement to
protest poverty and unemployment hit production in the mining and
car-manufacturing industries and had a patchy response in other sectors.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 19, In South Africa
Noziphu Bhengu (32), a victim of AIDS and quackery, died.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.89)
2006 May 27, In South Africa 13
were killed on a highway after a pickup truck slammed into the back of
a minibus taxi which exploded into flames.
(Reuters, 5/28/06)
2006 Jun 5, In South Africa the
Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE) became a listed company on its own
exchange. The JSE was the 17th largest in the world and the largest in
Africa. It listed only 25 foreign companies.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.72)
2006 Jun 6, Qatar Petroleum and
South Africa’s Sasol unveiled a new plant in Qatar to transform natural
gas into a synthetic fuel similar to diesel by a process knows as
gas-to-liquids (GTL). Sasol was also building a GTL plant in Nigeria
with Chevron Texaco.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.58)
2006 Jun 21, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao flew into South Africa on the fifth leg of an African tour where
he is due to sign a nuclear cooperation pact and hold talks on the
thorny question of textile imports from Beijing.
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jul 10, South African writer
Mary Watson was named the 7th winner of the Caine Prize for African
writing her 2004 book “Moss,” a collection interlinked stories. The
prize was created in honor of the late Sir Michael Caine, a British
businessman with a deep interest in Africa who for almost 25 years
chaired the management committee of what is today known the Man Booker
Prize.
(AP, 7/12/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.83)
2006 Aug 2, South Africans faced
one of their harshest winters in years, with at least four deaths
blamed on flooding from heavy rain that has caused travel delays in the
south and west of the country.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 16, The presidents of
South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe gathered for the official opening
the new Giriyondo border post linking South Africa and Mozambique. This
was another step in the creation of the 14,000 square mile Greater
Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which would span the 3 countries.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 24, South Africa's
cabinet gave the green light for a bill allowing gay marriage, which
would make it the first country in Africa to accord homosexual couples
the same rights as their straight counterparts.
(Reuters, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 28, In South Africa
Adriaan Vlok, whose ministry helped suppress anti-apartheid protests,
last weekend visited the offices of the Rev. Frank Chikane, a top
presidential aide, to apologize. Vlok brought his Bible and washed
Chikane's feet in an attempt to atone for the sins of the white racist
regime that ruled the country until 1994.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Sep 5, Russian President
Vladimir Putin met South African leader Thabo Mbeki at the start of a
visit intended to forge closer ties between the mineral and diamond
superpowers.
(Reuters, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 6, More than 80
international scientists and academics released a letter that condemned
South Africa's AIDS policies as ineffective and immoral and called for
the firing of the health minister in a letter to President Thabo Mbeki.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 7, Medical experts said a
killer strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been found in at least
28 hospitals across South Africa and that it jeopardized efforts to
deal with AIDS.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 8, In South Africa Hilda
Bernstein (b.1915), a London-born anti-apartheid activist and author,
died. Her husband was tried for treason alongside Nelson Mandela in
1964. Rusty Bernstein (d.2002) was the only defendant acquitted and
freed. Police harassment made life afterward so difficult for the
Bernsteins that the couple was forced into exile, leaving their
children behind. They crossed the border to Botswana on foot, a journey
described in Hilda Bernstein's book "The World That Was Ours."
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 13, The presidents of
Brazil and South Africa, at a trilateral trade meeting in Brasilia,
said they supported changes in international rules to allow India to
buy nuclear fuel and reactors from the United States and other
countries. The trio created the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue
Forum (IBSA) in 2003 to promote the interests of their emerging markets.
(Reuters, 9/13/06)(AFP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 20, In South Africa a
judge dismissed corruption charges against Jacob Zuma after the
prosecution said it was not ready to proceed against a powerful,
populist politician who could be South Africa's next president.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 30, In South Africa the
4th annual Homeless World Cup tournament ended. It brought together 500
players from 48 countries in a project aimed at helping homeless people
turn their lives around. The first was held in Austria in 2003 with
just five countries competing.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Sep 30, India’s PM Manmohan
Singh arrived in South Africa to expand trade links and commemorate the
passive resistance movement initiated by Mahatma Gandhi in the African
nation 100 years ago.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Oct 2, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh and South African President Thabo Mbeki signed a sweeping pact to
buttress ties between the regional powerhouses. The Pretoria agreement
was followed by the signing of a pact on cooperation in education and
another between Indian Railways which runs one of the world's biggest
networks and South African railway company Spoornet.
(AP, 10/2/06)
2006 Oct 30, South African miner
Gold Fields announced it was listing on the Dubai International
Financial Exchange (DIFX), becoming the first African company to list
shares on the fledgling Gulf market.
(AP, 10/30/06)
2006 Oct 31, In South Africa P.W.
Botha (b.1916), the apartheid-era leader (1978-1989) known as the
“great crocodile,” died. In the 1980s he had resisted pressure to
release Nelson Mandela from prison.
(AP, 11/1/06)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.56)
2006 Nov 6, South Africa's top
appeals court dented ex-Deputy President Jacob Zuma's chances of
becoming the next president when it confirmed corruption convictions
against a former financial adviser.
(Reuters, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 13, In South Africa up to
20 people were killed near Cape Town when a train smashed into a truck
carrying farm workers.
(AFP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 14, The South African
parliament approved new legislation recognizing gay marriages, a first
for a continent where homosexuality is largely taboo.
(AP, 11/14/06)
2006 Nov 20, In South Africa
police said Ananias Mathe, a Mozambican national awaiting trial on
rape, murder and other charges, escaped from Pretoria's C-Max
prison by greasing himself up with petroleum jelly and squeezing
out of a tiny window. This was the first reported escape at the top
security prison in its 36-year history. On Dec 4 Mathe was shot and
captured.
(AP, 11/20/06)(AFP, 12/4/06)
2006 Nov 30, South Africa became
the first country in Africa, and only the fifth in the world, to
legalize same sex marriages.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 1, South Africa unveiled
plans to halve the number of people being infected with the AIDS virus
within five years by persuading youngsters to delay the start of their
sex lives. Some 5.5 million South Africans suffered from HIV and about
950 were dying from AIDS every day.
(AFP, 12/1/06)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.53)
2006 Dec 5, In South Africa the
findings of a new report said nearly 300 million dollars worth of gold
is stolen every year by underground pirates from mines. The report
found that 41% of gold thieves were mine employees and 56% were
unemployed.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 7, The South African
central bank raised its key lending rate by half a percentage point to
9.0%. In the wake of the repo rate increase, the country's four main
commercial banks announced increases of their prime lending rates by
half a point to 12.5%.
(AFP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 8, President George W.
Bush and visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki pressed for
urgent deployment of international peacekeepers in violence-torn Darfur.
(AFP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 9, UN Special Envoy
Stephen Lewis said South Africa had made "a breakthrough" on AIDS after
sidelining its controversial health minister and unveiling a new
program for helping people with HIV. Health Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang contended that eating a mixture of garlic and
vegetables can fight HIV.
(AFP, 12/9/06)
2006 Dec 12, Czech president
Vaclav Klaus pledged to forge closer ties with Prague's biggest African
trade partner as he became the first leader from the eastern European
nation to visit South Africa.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 14, South Africa’s
cabinet released details of its newly approved codes of good practice
for black economic development (BEE). They were mandatory only for
government and state-owned companies, but pretty much required for
anyone wanting to do business with the state.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.99)(www.dispute.co.za/)
2006 In South Africa over 18,000
people were murdered this year. The number of South Africans with AIDS
reached 5.5 million.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.13)
2006 In South Africa blacks made
up 80% of the population of some 48 million people.
(Econ, 12/2/06, p.52)
2007 Jan 2, In South Africa Oprah
Winfrey opened a school for disadvantaged girls south of Johannesburg,
fulfilling a promise she made to former President Nelson Mandela six
years ago and giving more than 150 students a chance for a better
future. The school later became embroiled in allegations of abuse;
Winfrey apologized and promised an overhaul.
(AP, 1/2/07)(AP, 1/2/08)
2007 Jan 4, Marais Viljoen (91),
former president of South Africa (1979-1984), died. The post of
president in the then apartheid state was largely ceremonial during his
term.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 26, In South Africa
historian David Rattray (48) was found shot dead at his home in the
eastern Kwa-Zulu Natal province. On Feb 5 a court handed Sethe
Nkwanyana (23) a 25-year prison term for armed robbery and the murder
of Rattray. Nkwanyana said in court that Banozi Ndlovu shot Rattray.
(AFP, 2/5/07)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.91)
2007 Jan 30, Researchers said
South Africa's AIDS epidemic, often regarded by health workers as a
disease of the poor, is in fact spreading quickly among the country's
richest and best educated people.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Feb 1, In South Africa 20
people, including four children, were killed in a car accident in
Mpumalanga province.
(AFP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 6, China’s President Hu
Jintao vowed to forge a partnership of equals with South Africa as he
held talks with his counterpart Thabo Mbeki.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 7, In South Africa Chin’s
President Hu Jintao promised to increase imports from Africa,
responding to fears about the trade deficit that increased as China
pumped unprecedented aid, investment and loans into the poor but
resource-rich continent.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 8, South Africa, burdened
with one of the world's major HIV/AIDS epidemics, unveiled plans for
its biggest AIDS vaccine trial.
(Reuters, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 12, South Africa said it
will build a second nuclear power plant generating more than 1,000
megawatts of electricity.
(AFP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 20, South Africa's
environment minister announced long-awaited restrictions on hunting,
declaring he was sickened by wealthy tourists shooting tame lions from
the back of a truck and felling rhinos with a bow and arrow.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 21, South Africa's
finance minister painted an upbeat picture of the economy, forecasting
five-percent annual growth to the end of the decade as he posted the
first budget surplus in recent memory. Two people were arrested over
the theft of jewelry worth more than 500,000 dollars from the home of
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of South Africa's
anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb, In South Africa 6 US
nationals employed by the embassy in Pretoria were forced at gunpoint
to lie on the floor during a raid on their home during which a gang
stole thousands of dollars worth of equipment.
(AFP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb, Close to 12 million of
South Africa’s 47 million people received some type of government
assistance.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.89)
2007 Mar 8, South Africa launched
a new national plan to combat one of the world's highest rates of
domestic violence on International Woman's Day.
(AFP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 10, The South African
government took possession of the first farm to be expropriated, in a
move designed to silence criticism it is dragging its feet over land
reform. Local people had been forced off Pniel Farm near Kimberley and
into a shantytown in 1967.
(AFP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 19, In South Africa waves
reaching up to eight meters (26 feet) high pounded Durban, smashing
windows and flooding businesses.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 23, Australia called on
South Africa to pressure Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to quit,
saying the 83-year-old leader was a disaster for his country. South
Africa defended its policy on Zimbabwe as the only way to approach
Mugabe's authoritarian government and said African nations might
convene a summit to deal with the crisis.
(AFP, 3/23/07)(Reuters, 3/23/07)
2007 Apr 8, The body of a murdered
South African national, Kenneth Scott Andrew (26), was found in a
plastic bag on the outskirts of the northwestern Pakistani city of
Peshawar.
(AFP, 4/9/07)
2007 Apr 10, South African
President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Khartoum to join the international
push for UN peacekeepers in Darfur, amid fears of a regional spillover
after clashes between Sudan and Chad. Officials said the UN, the
African Union and the Sudanese government have reached agreement to
beef up the African force in Sudan's violence-wracked Darfur region
with UN troops, police and equipment.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 13, African health
ministers meeting in South Africa adopted a health strategy to deal
with the host of diseases on the continent, a dearth of health workers
and failing health systems.
(AFP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 30, The South African
government and AIDS campaigners launched a joint national body to
oversee a program aimed at halving the country's rate of new infections.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 May 1, Thousands of South
Africans marched in Durban to protest the renaming of streets after
heroes of the ruling African National Congress, sparking warnings of
violence in the Zulu heartland.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 6, In South Africa Helen
Zille, mayor of Cape Town, was elected as leader of the Democratic
Alliance (DA).
(Econ, 5/12/07, p.51)
2007 May 7, In South Africa Dina
Rodrigues was found guilty of murder for orchestrating the June 2005
killing of 6-month-old Jordan-Leigh Norton, her lover's baby daughter
from a previous marriage. This was South Africa's first known contract
killing of an infant.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 10, South Africa's common
law was rewritten to classify forced anal sex with a woman or girl,
previously considered indecent assault, as rape.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 14, In South Africa
deputies and experts attending the Pan African Parliament called for
Western countries to help reverse the environmental damage to the
continent that they had helped create.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 22, South African
lawmakers passed amended legislation to broaden the definition of rape
in a country with sky-high rates of sex crimes and HIV/AIDS. The
heaviest snowfalls in 20 years blocked major highways, as a severe cold
snap tightened its grip on South Africa. At least 17 deaths, mostly in
Eastern Cape province, were blamed on the cold weather.
(AP, 5/22/07)(AFP, 5/22/07)(SFC, 5/26/07, p.B6)
2007 May 24, In South Africa's
Eastern Cape province 9 children were among 14 people killed in a
multiple-vehicle crash.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 May 25, In South Africa tens
of thousands of nurses, teachers and other public service workers took
to the streets to press their demands for a 12 percent pay increase.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 May 31, In South Africa
Britain's PM Blair also said that Africa's leaders must get tough on
authoritarian governments, such as those in Sudan and Zimbabwe.
(Reuters, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, In South Africa
hundreds of thousands of public servants embarked on an indefinite
strike.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 1, CNBC Africa was
launched from new headquarters in South Africa. Dubai investors put in
some $22.5 million for the 24-hour African business channel
broadcasting to 14 African countries.
(Econ, 6/9/07, p.75)
2007 Jun 2, The UN Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) decided to permit a
one-off sale of 60 tons of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South
Africa to Japan, saying it would monitor closely the impact on poaching
and population levels.
(Reuters, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, The Institute for
Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) said a study of mortality patterns in
South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Senegal indicated
Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis was reaching deep into elected governments.
(Reuters, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, South African police
fired stun grenades and made a dozen arrests as they cracked down on
union hardliners who were preventing nurses from turning up for work at
a hospital in Durban.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 7, South Africa launched
a new scheme by which citizens in crime-ridden areas will be able to
use text messages to anonymously tip-off the police. South African
police used stun grenades and a water cannon to disperse striking
hospital workers in the port city of Durban as a crippling public
sector strike entered its 7th day.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 12, The Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development said South Africa is to become the
first African country to join an OECD convention requiring adherents to
crack down on bribery of foreign public officials.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 13, In South Africa tens
of thousands of public sector workers marched to government offices
across the country, escalating a 12-day-old strike and bringing the
largest cities to a standstill.
(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jun 13, In South Africa tens
of thousands of public sector workers marched to government offices
across the country, escalating a 12-day-old strike and bringing the
largest cities to a standstill.
(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jun 14, In South Africa
former UN chief Kofi Annan said he would head a new green group
bankrolled by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to help reverse Africa's
declining food production and double output.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 14, In the Netherlands
four African states (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe),
after an 18-year ban, were allowed to put their ivory stocks on the
market in a one-time sale as part of a hard-fought compromise reached
with other Africans who tried to block the sale. The 171-member
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES,
approved the deal by consensus.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 22, South African unions
turned down a revised offer of a 7.5% pay rise, ensuring that the
country's biggest strike since the end of apartheid will go into a
fourth week.
(AFP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 27, South Africa's main
international airport faced major disruption after a deadly cold snap
which saw the heaviest snowfalls in Johannesburg for more than two
decades.
(AP, 6/27/07)
2007 Jun 28, In South Africa
public sector unions representing one million members called off a
nearly monthlong strike, bringing an end to a labor action that shut
down schools and crippled hospitals across the country.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jul 12, South Africa banned
the import of poultry products from Germany after an outbreak of the
potentially fatal H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 16, Public schools
reopened in South Africa after seven weeks following a month-long
strike by teachers and winter holidays.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 20, President Thabo Mbeki
hailed the launch of a rolling news network in South Africa as an
opportunity to break free of Western news agendas and give a more
rounded picture of the continent.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Angola, Namibia and
South Africa launched a joint commission designed to lay the groundwork
for a sustainable and environmental approach of their shared fishing
grounds in the Atlantic Ocean.
(AFP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 23, Abel Mutsakani, the
editor of an independent Zimbabwean news service based in South Africa,
was shot and seriously wounded in Johannesburg.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 30, Officials said at
least 19 people have been killed and hundreds of homes destroyed by a
series of forest fires which have swept through parts of northeastern
South Africa.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Aug 6, South Africa stated
its readiness to assist Guinea Bissau in tackling drug trafficking as
the tiny west African nation has been used as a transit hub for
European-bound cocaine.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 8, In South Africa Pres.
Mbeki dismissed deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge
following reports that she had gone to Spain to attend an AIDS
conference without his permission. AIDS activists have been highly
critical of her boss, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who
promoted garlic and lemons as a remedy for AIDS and mistrusted
antiretroviral medicines.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 9, Officials said a total
of 28 people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed by a series of
forest fires which swept through parts of South Africa and Swaziland
since the end of last month.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 15, Maputo's interior
ministry said South Africa has intensified the repatriation of
Mozambican illegal immigrants, going from 400 to a weekly average of
more than 600.
(AFP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 17, In the first trial of
a minister from South Africa’s white racist government, former law and
order Minister Adriaan Vlok and his police chief Johannes Van der Merwe
were both sentenced to 10 years. However, they will not have to spend
any time in prison if they commit no crimes for five years. Three other
former top security officials were given five-year suspended sentences
for their role in the 1989 plot to assassinate Frank Chikane.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 20, South African
President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Kinshasa for a working visit aimed at
boosting relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
(AFP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 21, The leader of India's
ruling party, Sonia Gandhi, arrived in South Africa for a three-day
visit in a bid to strengthen ties between the two nations.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 27, In South Africa
Hewlett-Packard became the first multinational to be exempted from
selling 30 percent of its business in South Africa to black investors.
Under an agreement reached with the government, the company will
instead invest millions of dollars in a new business institute to
provide training for 1,800 students over the next six years.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 29, Britain unveiled a
statue of Nelson Mandela outside the houses of Parliament, honoring the
South African anti-apartheid campaigner as one of the great leaders of
his era.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Sep 25, In South Africa a
two-week strike by some 50,000 workers that had halted output at
Volkswagen AG , DaimlerChrysler (DAIGn.DE) and other car makers ended.
(Reuters, 9/26/07)
2007 Oct 3, A pressurized air pipe
snapped at the mine near Johannesburg and tumbled down a shaft, causing
extensive damage to an elevator and stranding 3,200 miners more than a
mile underground. More than 2,000 trapped gold miners were rescued in a
dramatic all-night operation, and efforts gathered speed to bring
hundreds more to the surface. By the next night all the miners had
emerged safely.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, The head of South
Africa's main union body stood down from his office pending the outcome
of an investigation into the disappearance of a large cash donation.
(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 4, Prominent world
figures led by former President Carter and Desmond Tutu of South Africa
said they were shocked by the suffering in Darfur and criticized
Sudan's government in exceptionally harsh terms.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 5, South African
prosecutors said they had obtained an arrest warrant for national
police chief and Interpol president Jackie Selebi, as one of his
friends appeared in court on murder charges.
(AFP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 9, The impoverished Nama
tribe won back diamond-rich land confiscated by a government mining
company more than 80 years ago, ending South Africa's longest running
court case. The Nama had lodged their claim to the coastal plain in
1997.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 10, Two suspects were
remanded in custody by a South African court in connection with the
murders of ten women whose bodies were found dumped in sugarcane fields.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 11, South Africa's
central bank chief Tito Mboweni announced the key lending rate is to
increase by half a percentage point to 10.5% to ward off a threat of
higher inflation.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 12, In central South
Africa the Oerlikon GDF-005, a German-made computer-controlled
anti-aircraft gun, went haywire during a training exercise killing 9
South African soldiers and wounding 14 others.
(AP,
10/12/07)(http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html)
2007 Oct 17,
In South Africa the leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa
vowed to push the interests of poor nations in stalled international
trade talks and said any agreement would have to benefit the developing
world.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 18, South African reggae
star Lucky Dube (43) was shot in an apparent carjacking attempt in
Johannesburg's southern Rosettenville suburb. He died as he tried to
drive away and crashed into a car and a tree. On Oct 21 police arrested
five men in the killing. His albums included “Rastas never Die” (1984)
and “Slave” (1987). In 2009 three men were sentenced to life in prison
for the botched carjacking and murder.
(AP, 10/19/07)(AP, 10/21/07)(Econ, 10/27/07,
p.102)(AP, 4/2/09)
2007 Oct 21, Springboks, the South
African rugby team, beat England (15-6) in the Rugby World Cup Final at
the Stade France in Paris.
(AFP, 10/23/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.57)
2007 Oct 25, The Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China announced that it was buying 20% of Standard
Bank in South Africa for $5.6 billion.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.80)
2007 Oct 27, An official of the
Vietnamese embassy to South Africa was shot and seriously injured in a
robbery at his Pretoria residence.
(AFP, 10/28/07)
2007 Nov 6, Sudanese President
Omar al-Beshir met with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Cape
Town for talks on the situation in war-torn Darfur and political
upheaval in Khartoum.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, In northern South
Africa a blaze swept through a nursing home, killing 12 people and
injuring five.
(AP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 17, In South Africa
finance ministers from the world's largest 20 economies began talks
focusing on reforming the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF).
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 21, A South African
police officer died when a helicopter carrying 14 police officers and
five air force officials crashed near the border with Lesotho.
(AFP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 22, In South Africa De
Beers announced that it was selling the Cullinan diamond mine, which it
has owned since 1930, to a consortium led by Petra Diamonds.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.82)
2007 Dec 1, In South Africa Nelson
Mandela drew a crowd of about 15,000 to his fifth international
awareness concert, held this year to coincide with World AIDS Day.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 4, Tens of thousands of
mineworkers downed tools in South Africa in a one-day strike over
safety standards, accusing their bosses of putting lives at risk for
the sake of profits.
(AFP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 12-2007 Dec 14, In South
Africa 49 patients, all with multidrug resistant (MDR) and extremely
drug resistant (XDR) TB, escaped through holes they had cut through the
perimeter fences of Jose Pearson Hospital in Port Elizabeth.
(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317354,00.html)
2007 Dec 18, In South Africa
delegates of the governing African National Congress cast their votes
for party leader. Zuma defeated President Thabo Mbeki by 2,329 votes to
1,505 at the party convention and moved into position to become
president in 2009.
(AP, 12/18/07)(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 20, South Africa's top
prosecutor said he had enough evidence to bring corruption charges
against Jacob Zuma, the man standing in line to be the country's next
president.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 28, Jacob Zuma (65), the
newly elected leader of South Africa's ruling party, was ordered to
stand trial on corruption and other charges next year, raising doubts
about whether the party would back his candidacy for the 2009
presidential election.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 28, Tanzania's ambassador
to South Africa and his wife were attacked by armed robbers at a
farewell dinner hosted for them in the capital Pretoria.
(AFP, 12/29/07)
2007 Mark Gevisser, a South
African journalist, authored a biography of South Africa’s Pres. Thabo
Mbeki “Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred.”
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.97)
2007 Padraig O’Malley authored
“Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa.”
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.M1)
2008 Jan 5, Jacob Zuma, the new
African National Congress leader and would-be national president, took
another wife, in a Zulu tradition of polygamy that coexists uneasily
with calls for gender equality in modern South Africa.
(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 12, South African
national police chief Jackie Selebi was placed on extended leave, a day
after prosecutors announced plans to charge him with corruption over
his links to a murder suspect. Selebi resigned as president of Interpol
and planned to fight corruption allegations.
(AP, 1/12/08)(WSJ, 1/14/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 13, Irish PM Bertie Ahern
arrived in Cape Town as part of a five-day visit to South Africa and
Tanzania.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 14, In South Africa Johan
Nel (18), wearing camouflage and carrying a rifle, began firing on a
group of children as he took a path through the settlement just outside
the village of Swartruggens. His shooting rampage in the black
settlement left four people dead, including a mother and her infant.
His father handed him over to police. In November Nel pleaded guilty as
his trial started.
(AP, 1/24/08)(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Jan 19, Nationwide power
outages shut down basic services across Zambia and Zimbabwe as anger
mounted in South Africa over power cuts that have wreaked havoc in the
continent's economic hub.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 23, Canada bowed out of
the 2009 UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, saying it
would likely "degenerate into ... expressions of intolerance and
anti-Semitism."
(AFP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 25, In South Africa gold
production ground to a halt as the industry became the latest victim of
a spiraling electricity crisis which the government labeled a national
emergency.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 25, Gold and platinum
prices reached new highs after mine stoppages in South Africa, a
leading producer of the precious metals, led to buying on supply
concerns. An ounce of gold for February delivery spiked to $924.30, a
fresh record, on the New York Mercantile Exchange before easing back to
settle at $910.70, up $4.90. April platinum peaked at a new high of
$1,694.90 an ounce. Prices later settled at $1,670, up $57.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 30, South African police
raided a downtown Johannesburg church late at night where hundreds of
Zimbabweans had taken refuge, hauling people in pajamas to a police
station in scenes reminiscent of apartheid-era raids.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 30, Auto giant Ford
announced a multi-million dollar investment in South Africa, brushing
aside fears about an electricity crisis which has alarmed other
international investors.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Feb 5, A South African court
sentenced Daniel Geiges (69), a Swiss engineer, for his part in an
international nuclear smuggling ring. Geiges was given a 13-year
suspended sentence on charges relating to a network run by disgraced
Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. Geiges' former boss and
co-accused, German engineer Gerhard Wisser was given an 18-year
suspended sentenced last year in a plea agreement for his role in the
network.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 5, In South Africa 12
patients, including two children, were killed when their minibus
overturned en route to a hospital in South Africa's Northern Cape
province.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 11, In London the price
of platinum struck an historic high nearing $1,900 on supply
disruptions caused by power shortages in South Africa, the white
metal's biggest producer.
(AP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 12, South Africa’s
security minister announced that the government is dissolving an elite
graft-busting unit set up by prosecutors, in the latest twist in a
struggle between South Africa's crime-fighting agencies.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 18, Platinum hit a record
high for the 13th successive day on lingering power supply shortages
which have disrupted mining in main producer South Africa.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 22, South Africa and
India agreed to allow businessmen traveling between the two countries
multiple entry visas, as part of several agreements signed in Pretoria.
(AFP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 25, South Africa
announced that it was reversing a 1995 ban on killing elephants to help
control their booming population, drawing instant outrage from
animal-rights activists.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 28, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy, following talks with South African President Thabo
Mbeki in South Africa, announced a "renegotiation" of all French
military accords with African nations, arguing that France no longer
had a "policing" role to play on the continent. French power giant
Alstom announced a 1.36 billion euro (two-billion-dollar) contract for
the construction of a coal-fuelled power plant in South Africa which is
suffering from a severe electricity shortage.
(AFP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 29, France and
energy-hungry South Africa signed three economic accords, including one
for the construction of a 1.36-billion euro coal-fuelled power plant by
French energy giant Alstom.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 1, BHP Billiton,
Melbourne-based mining giant, said it plans to invest $975 million to
upgrade and expand its thermal coal mines in South Africa to sustain
coal exports amid soaring coal prices.
(Reuters, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 17, Indonesia and South
Africa agreed to reduce obstacles to trade and business and jointly
explore new avenues for electricity generation.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 28, South Africa launched
a four million dollar program to track down tuberculosis patients who
have defaulted treatment, leading to resistant strains of the illness.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar, In South Africa tens of
thousands of swallows fell dead in Limpopo province as wet weather
prevented them from eating properly less than a week before their
migration for Europe.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.B6)
2008 Apr 13, In South Africa 2
Americans and a Norwegian tourist on a shark cage diving adventure
drowned when their boat was hit by a freak wave.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 17, A
government spokesman said South Africa has waived Cuban debt totaling
more than 100 million dollars.
(AFP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 18,
South Africa's main transport union thwarted the delivery of a
controversial shipment of Chinese arms destined for Zimbabwe, saying
its workers would not offload the cargo. The Chinese ship left the
South African harbor and headed for neighboring Mozambique. Angola and
Mozambique said the ship is not welcome. China defended the cargo
against international criticism.
(AFP, 4/18/08)(AP, 4/19/08)(AFP, 4/22/08)(SFC,
4/23/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 24, China said a shipment
of arms bound for Zimbabwe will be recalled after South African workers
refused to unload the vessel and other neighboring countries barred it
from their ports.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)
2008 May 1, South Africa lifted a
13-year ban on killing elephants. The country had some 18,000 elephants.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 May 9, South African
President Thabo Mbeki held intensive talks with veteran counterpart
Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe's post-election crisis as doctors reported
a dramatic rise in violence.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 12, The US Supreme Court
affirmed a lower court ruling that multinational companies can be sued
in a US court for allegedly aiding and abetting the former apartheid
government in South Africa. Financial holdings prevented 4 justices
from taking the case.
(www.csmonitor.com/2008/0513/p02s01-usju.htm)(SFC,
5/13/08, p.A5)
2008 May 18, In South Africa mobs
killed at least six people and injured 50 in anti-foreigner violence
that has spread through poor suburbs of Johannesburg. Zimbabweans were
mainly targeted. The trouble started last week in the sprawling
township of Alexandra, where angry residents accused foreigners of
taking scarce jobs and housing.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 19, In South Africa
police fired rubber bullets and made arrests to try to quell outbursts
of anti-foreigner violence in and around Johannesburg, as the death
toll reached 22.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 20, The International
Organization for Migration (IOM) said a wave of violence against
foreigners in South Africa has forced 13,000 people to flee their homes
and seek shelter in churches and other social centers. Violence against
foreigners had killed at least 24 people and unnerved investors.
(AFP, 5/20/08)(Reuters, 5/20/08)
2008 May 21, In South Africa
xenophobic violence, that has killed at least 24 people, spilled over
to the volatile Zulu heartland and security officials discussed whether
to use troops to quell unrest.
(Reuters, 5/21/08)
2008 May 22, The South African
army mobilized in support of embattled police trying to quell a wave of
violence against immigrants that has claimed 42 lives and displaced
16,000. More than 10,000 Mozambicans have fled home from South Africa
to escape the xenophobic attacks.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 23, South Africa's
security chief accused right wingers, linked to the former apartheid
government, of fanning xenophobic violence that has spread to Cape
Town, the second largest city and tourist center.
(Reuters, 5/23/08)
2008 May 24, In South Africa
thousands of people marched through Johannesburg, calling for an end to
xenophobic violence that has killed over 40 African migrants and
displaced tens of thousands.
(Reuters, 5/24/08)
2008 May 25, South African
President Thabo Mbeki made a rare national address in which he
condemned anti-immigrant violence as "an absolute disgrace." The death
toll from two weeks of anti-immigrant violence rose to 50. Concerns
mounted for some 35,000 people who have been displaced by the backlash.
(AFP, 5/25/08)(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, It was reported that
an estimated 5.4 million of South Africa's 48 million people have the
AIDS virus, the highest total of any country. The epidemic was killing
nearly 1,000 South Africans a day and infecting even more.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 27, South African
President Thabo Mbeki came under fire for traveling to Japan as
anti-immigrant violence spread to a new province and aid groups
struggled with thousands of displaced victims.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 31, South African police
said on a wave of attacks on foreigners has killed 62 people since the
violence broke out three weeks ago.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 Jun 2, Nigeria's President
Umaru Yar-Adua arrived in South Africa for a four-day state visit to
forge closer ties between Africa's most populous country and its
biggest economy.
(AFP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 9, South Africa's ruling
African National Congress party chief Jacob Zuma kicked off a visit to
India with talks with PM Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 11, Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe's party said it would deploy more war veterans to
campaign in some opposition areas ahead of a presidential election
run-off marred by violence. South African President Thabo Mbeki said
levels of violence in the approach to Zimbabwe's run-off presidential
election on June 27 are a cause for "serious concern."
(Reuters, 6/11/08)(AFP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 25, In South Africa
striking local police opened fire on officers from South Africa's
national force when they tried to stop them from blocking roads in
Johannesburg. Patients with drug-resistant forms of the disease went on
a rampage to protest prison-like conditions at the Jose Pearson
hospital, near the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, which treats about
300 patients.
(AFP, 6/26/08)(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jun 26, A South African court
ordered Jackie Selebi, the nation's top cop, to stand trial on
corruption charges next year, widening a leadership vacuum in law
enforcement agencies struggling to control one of the world's highest
crime rates.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jul 2, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai rejected an African Union decision to keep
South Africa's president alone in charge of efforts to resolve
Zimbabwe's political crisis. The European Commission insisted that
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be named at the
head of any new government. South African President Thabo Mbeki
rejected the EU position.
(AP, 7/2/08)(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 7, The South African
Reserve Bank said 5 million coins featuring a smiling Nelson Mandela
will go into circulation on July 18, the former president's 90th
birthday.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 11, Zimbabwe’s opposition
Movement for Democratic Change said a total of 113 MDC supporters have
now been killed in politically-related violence. Zimbabwe's ruling
party and opposition held a second day of talks in South Africa. A UN
Security Council bid to pass sanctions against Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe
was vetoed by Russia and China.
(AP, 7/11/08)(AFP, 7/11/08)(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 16, Gold production was
severely disrupted in parts of South Africa as thousands of mineworkers
downed tools to protest rising living costs.
(AFP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, The United States
signed a pair of agreements to boost trade and investment ties with
countries in southern and eastern Africa. These included the Trade,
Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement with the Southern
Africa Customs Union (SACU), which includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia,
South Africa and Swaziland; and the Trade Investment and Framework
Agreement (TIFA) with the East African Community, which includes
Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, South Africa’s Pres.
Thabo Mbeki announced plans to work with the UN and African Union as he
attempts to mediate a settlement in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 21, In Zimbabwe mediator
South African Pres. Thabo Mbeki oversaw a ceremony in Harare at which
Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed an
agreement for negotiations to bring the country out of political chaos
in their first meeting in a decade.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 24, In South Africa talks
began in earnest on resolving Zimbabwe's political crisis after
President Robert Mugabe gave his senior lieutenants the final go-ahead
to negotiate power-sharing with the opposition.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 25, The EU and South
Africa began their first-ever summit in the French city of Bordeaux.
Brussels solidly backed Pretoria's mediating role in Zimbabwe as the
only way of ending ruinous political chaos.
(AFP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 28, Navanethem Pillay, a
judge from South Africa, was confirmed as the new UN chief of human
rights.
(SFC, 7/29/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 29, Talks in South Africa
on Zimbabwe's political crisis broke up with no power-sharing deal
between President Robert Mugabe and his bitter rival Morgan Tsvangirai
in sight.
(AFP, 7/29/08)
2008 Aug 6, Thousands protested in
South Africa as workers disrupted gold mining and other major
industries in a national strike over price hikes rattling the
continent's economic powerhouse.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 10, South African
President Thabo Mbeki spent more than eight hours in talks with
Zimbabwe's president and opposition leaders to try to resolve a deadly
political dispute.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 13, South African
President Thabo Mbeki left Zimbabwe after failing to secure a
power-sharing deal between its main rivals during marathon talks,
adding to doubts over chances of an agreement.
(Reuters, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 15, South African
authorities closed camps that have housed thousands of foreigners
displaced by xenophobic violence, in a move that has drawn concern they
could face more attacks when they return home.
(AFP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 16, In South Africa a
regional summit of southern African leaders opened with Zimbabwe's
crisis high on the agenda, and with the country's main political rivals
in attendance.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 17, Southern African
countries launched a regional trade zone at a Johannesburg summit that
aims to eliminate import tariffs, with plans for a common currency by
2018. Eleven of the 14 countries that are part of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) will participate in the free trade area,
including Zimbabwe. Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi
planned to join at a later date due to weak economies.
(AFP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 23, Environmental experts
said Nigeria and South Africa are the main emitters of greenhouse gases
in Africa, accounting for almost 90 percent of the emissions in the
continent.
(AFP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 31, In South Africa
strong winds fanned runaway fires across the country killing at least
16 people, including two children.
(AFP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 2, South Africa signed an
energy agreement with oil-rich Venezuela as President Hugo Chavez
arrived on his first state visit. Political, trade and economic
relations were on the agenda with President Thabo Mbeki.
(AFP, 9/2/08)(AFP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 10, Officials said at
least 89 people have died in wildfires sweeping through Mozambique,
South Africa and Swaziland.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, Officials said at
least 89 people have died in wildfires sweeping through Mozambique,
South Africa and Swaziland.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 12, A South African judge
ruled that prosecutors were wrong to charge ANC President Jacob Zuma
with corruption, effectively clearing way for the 66-year-old former
freedom fighter to become the country's next president.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 20, South African
President Thabo Mbeki agreed to resign after the ruling party ordered
him to step down, a move that could heighten turmoil in Africa's
economic powerhouse. A Sep 19 ruling threw out corruption charges
against Zuma it appeared Mbeki and his justice minister had colluded
with prosecutors against Zuma as part of the "titanic power struggle"
within the ANC. Mbeki indignantly denied this.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 22, In South Africa ANC
members of parliament said the ruling African National Congress will
name party deputy head Kgalema Motlanthe as South Africa's caretaker
leader after the ousting of President Thabo Mbeki. His resignation will
take effect Sep 25.
(Reuters, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 23, South Africa's
finance minister resigned along with most leading Cabinet members but
tried to reassure a shaken business community and stock market by
saying he was willing to serve the country's new administration.
(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 25, South Africa's
parliament elected Kgalema Motlanthe, former trade unionist, freedom
fighter deputy leader of the ruling ANC, as interim president of a
country gripped by the worst political crisis since the end of
apartheid. He was expected to step aside after elections next year,
when Jacob Zuma was expected to become president. Motlanthe, within
hours of taking office , won instant praise by announcing that Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang would be removed as health minister and given a
lesser post in his office. She had promoted nutritional supplements
instead of conventional medicine for people with HIV.
(AP, 9/25/08)(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Sep 27, The AIDS virus was
reported to afflict some 5.5 million of South Africa’s 49 million
population.
(Econ, 9/27/08, p.19)
2008 Oct 7, Zambia's ambassador
said Zambia and the World Health Organization (WHO) have joined the
hunt for a mystery illness that has killed four people in South Africa.
A South Africa, health official said the mystery disease may be
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.
(AFP, 10/7/08)(Reuters, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 13, Barbara Hogan, South
Africa’s new health minister, broke from a decade of discredited
government policies declaring that AIDS is caused by HIV and must be
treated by conventional medicine.
(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 23, South Africa’s
National Assembly approved new legislation to disband the Scorpions
investigating unit and incorporate it into the police force.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Nov 1, In South Africa
thousands of dissidents in the African National Congress met to pave
the way for a new South African party, the Congress of the People
(COPE) in a bitter split from the movement that led the anti-apartheid
struggle.
(AFP, 11/1/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.58)
2008 Nov 9, Southern African
leaders opened a regional summit on Zimbabwe, hoping to break a
deadlock over the allocation of cabinet posts which has prevented
formation of a power-sharing government.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 10, Miriam Makeba
(b.1932), the South African folk singer and anti-apartheid activist
fondly known as "Mama Africa," died in southern Italy after performing
at a concert against organized crime.
(AP, 11/10/08)(SFC, 11/11/08, p.B5)
2008 Nov 12, In South African a
truck carrying workers collided with another truck, killing 23 people
and injuring nine.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Africa said it
will withhold aid for Zimbabwe until a representative government is in
place, in what appeared to be the first punitive measure by a regional
country to enforce a power-sharing agreement.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 26, South Africa's health
minister said Zimbabwe faced a humanitarian crisis after a major
outbreak of cholera, vowing not to turn away anyone who crosses the
border for treatment. Botswana's foreign minister said Zimbabwe's
neighbors should close their borders in an attempt to bring down Pres.
Robert Mugabe, in the strongest call yet for action from Africa.
(AFP, 11/26/08)
2008 Dec 1, South Africa used
World AIDS Day to urge its menfolk to get themselves tested for the HIV
virus that leads to the illness.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 9, A South African man
accused of attempting to smuggle hundreds of rare chameleons, snakes,
lizards and frogs out of Madagascar inside his jacket and luggage was
convicted and sentenced to a year in jail.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 11, The South African
Reserve Bank cut a key interest rate by a half percentage point to 11.5
percent in a bid to stimulate the flagging economy.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 13, In South Africa
scores of international beauties took to the stage as the Miss World
pageant started. Russian blonde Kseniya Sukhinova was crowned the 58th
Miss World after a two-hour spectacle that combined elements of
travelogue and reality show, and the kind of flag-waving usually seen
at sports events.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 17, South African
President Kgalema Motlanthe said Zimbabwe's neighbors will launch an
urgent humanitarian campaign in the hope of saving the country from
economic collapse and a cholera epidemic. Motlanthe also said South
Africa would not join international calls for Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe to step down, saying it was "not for us" to do so.
(AP, 12/17/08)(AFP, 12/17/08)
2008 Tony Leon, former head of
South Africa’s Democratic Alliance, authored “On the Contrary: Leading
the Opposition in a Democratic South Africa.”
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.81)
2008 South Africa this year had
over 100 policemen killed while on duty. They in turn shot dead some
600 suspects and innocent bystanders.
(Econ, 10/3/09, p.58)
2009 Jan 1, Helen Suzman (91),
South African anti-apartheid activist, died. She won international
acclaim as one of the few white lawmakers to fight against the
injustices of racist rule. Suzman, who was twice nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize, fought a long and lonely battle in the South African
parliament against government repression of the country's black
majority and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 4, Jimmy Mohlala, a South
African official who blew the whistle on alleged corruption in the
building of a stadium for the 2010 World Cup, was shot dead by unknown
gunmen. The 46,000-capacity Mbombela stadium, scheduled for completion
this year, is one of 10 venues for the 2010 World Cup.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In South
Africa a lethal storm on the eastern coast killed 18 people over the
weekend, including four family members struck dead by lightning.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 14, South Africa’s health
ministry said the death toll from a cholera outbreak has risen to 15,
with more than 2,100 cases registered in a spillover from Zimbabwe's
epidemic. The UN said the death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak
has risen to 2,106.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 16, South African police
and game park rangers said they have arrested 11 suspects in an
international rhinoceros poaching ring. Some of the rhinos had their
horns hacked from them while they were still alive.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 26, Southern African
leaders opened fresh talks in Pretoria to end Zimbabwe's political
crisis amid a new threat by President Robert Mugabe to form a
government excluding his arch rival from power.
(AFP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 27, In South Africa the
15-nation SADC grouping said after a meeting, its fifth attempt to
secure a deal on forming a unity government, it had agreed that
opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be sworn in as prime
minister by February 11. An analyst said chances for a deal appeared
slim. The recently introduced 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note cannot
buy a loaf of bread, which costs Z$30 trillion. Two weeks ago, a loaf
of bread cost Z$30 billion.
(Reuters, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 30, South African
President Kgalema Motlanthe signed legislation that disbands the
country's elite anti-crime investigating unit, known as the Scorpions.
The unit will now be part of the standard police forces.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 5, The South Africa
Reserve Bank slashed its benchmark interest rate by a full point to
10.5 percent, following a half-point cut in December, saying inflation
is headed downward.
(AFP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 24, British mining group
Lonmin announced up to 5,500 job cuts in South Africa, dealing a new
blow to the continent's biggest economy as it contracted for the first
time in a decade.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Mar 22, In South Africa the
Sunday Independent said the Chinese embassy in South Africa had
confirmed its government had appealed to South Africa not to allow the
Dalai Lama into the country for a peace conference on March 27.
Archbishop Tutu threatened to pull out of the meeting and to demand an
explanation from the authorities. On March 24 organizers postponed the
South African peace conference of Nobel laureates after the government
denied a visa to Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 3/22/09)(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Apr 6, In South Africa
prosecutors dropped corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, saying the
case had been manipulated for political reasons and clearing the way
for him to become the next president without the looming threat of a
trial.
(Reuters, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, In Zambia western
nations and lending agencies meeting in Lusaka agreed a financing
package of more than $1 billion to improve infrastructure in southern
and central Africa at an investment conference meant to expand
transport links and trade. Britain said it would separately provide 100
million pounds ($149.2 million) to transform the region's
infrastructure to increase trade and mitigate the effects of the global
financial crisis. New projects will link businesses in 8 African
countries: Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi,
Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 9, In South Africa an
armed mob invaded a major land reform project in the eastern Mpumalanga
province. The invaders were unhappy with the progress of the project,
despite warnings that it would take up to three years before a return
from what had been badly neglected farms.
(Reuters, 4/15/09)
2009 Apr 22, South Africans voted
in general elections set to launch the ruling ANC party's controversial
leader Jacob Zuma (67) into the presidency. The African National
Congress took 65.9 percent of the nearly 18 million votes cast, failing
to get its coveted two-thirds of the seats in the 400-member
parliament. The Democratic Alliance (DA), under Helen Zille, won nearly
17% and 17 seats, while the new COPE Party got barely 7% of the vote.
The Inkatha Freedom Party got 5% of the vote winning 18 seats.
(AFP, 4/22/09)(AP, 4/25/09)(Econ, 4/25/09,
p.53)(Econ, 5/2/09, p.13)(Econ, 5/2/09, p.50)
2009 Apr 23, In South Africa with
early returns giving the ANC a 66% lead, the party said it would block
off downtown Johannesburg streets around its offices for Zuma to
address his supporters in the evening to celebrate victory.
(AFP, 4/23/09)
2009 May 6, South Africa's
parliament has elected Jacob Zuma as the country's president. Zuma won
277 votes in the 400 member National Assembly. Zuma's African National
Congress won elections last month with 65.9% of the vote. He is due to
be inaugurated on May 9.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 9, In South Africa Jacob
Zuma became president, vowing to work to fulfill the dreams of all
South Africans after he overcame corruption and sex scandals to reach
the nation's highest office.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 28, It was reported that
scientists have identified a lethal new virus in Africa that causes
bleeding like the dreaded Ebola virus. The so-called "Lujo" virus
infected five people in Zambia and South Africa last fall. Four of them
died, but a fifth survived, perhaps helped by a medicine recommended by
the scientists.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 30, In South Africa 55
pilot whales beached near Cape Point, prompting a massive rescue
operation. The rescue efforts failed and 44 of the whales were shot to
end their suffering. The rest died of stress and organ failure.
(AP, 5/30/09)(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 Jun 2, In South Africa 61
prospectors died from a fire in an abandoned gold mine belonging to
Harmony Gold mining company, which had ceased working its Eland shaft.
Illegal miners, often called "gold pirates," are hired through
organized crime rackets that produce about $250 million in gold a year.
(AP, 6/2/09)(AP, 6/4/09)(AP, 7/21/09)
2009 Jun 6, It was reported that
in South Africa HIV-AIDS continued to claim some 3,000 lives a week.
(Econ, 6/6/09, p.48)
2009 Jun 9, South African health
activist Thembi Ngubane (24) died of tuberculosis leaving behind a
daughter (4). Her radio diaries of her struggle against the AIDS virus
won her audiences and admiration around the world. Ngubane was 19 when
she was given a tape recorder to make an audio diary about living with
HIV in a country where nearly one third of young women are infected
with the virus.
(AP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 13, In Australia it was
reported Barry Tannenbaum (43), an expatriate South African
businessman, has denied any wrongdoing in an alleged investment
scandal. Tannenbaum has been accused of fleecing rich South Africans in
what has been billed as one of the country's biggest Ponzi-style
investment scandals, according to local and South African media. The
massive pyramid scheme reportedly cost wealthy investors up to $1.2
billion.
(AFP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 19, A leading South
African research group said one in four male South Africans it surveyed
admitted to committing rape, a finding that cast a harsh light on a
culture of sexual violence that victims groups say is deeply embedded
in society.
(AP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jul 2, South Africa urged its
public service doctors to halt wildcat strikes and accept a revised
wage offer after low salaries and abysmal working conditions led them
to abandon patients.
(AFP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 9, In South Africa World
Cup organizers said a strike by construction workers entered its second
day as negotiators meet to try and resolve the standoff.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 20, In South Africa 9
workers died when the roof of the mine shaft they were working in
collapsed and trapped them about half a mile (1 km) underground in
Rustenburg.
(AP, 7/21/09)
2009 Jul 22, South Africa reported
that wave of protests have erupted in townships across the country over
shoddy housing and public services, adding to pressure on President
Jacob Zuma to deliver on promises to fight poverty.
(AFP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 23, South Africa’s
President Jacob Zuma's new government warned protesters they must
respect the law as violent demonstrations against shoddy public
services spread across townships.
(AP, 7/23/09)
2009 Jul 27, Thousands of South
African council workers went on strike to press for wage hikes,
crippling public services in Africa's biggest economy and piling
political pressure on new President Jacob Zuma.
(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 29, In South Africa a
ceremony was held for “Fire Walker,” a new four-story sculpture in
Johannesburg. A plaque was unveiled with the names of the South African
artists who created it: William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx. The
three-dimensional steel conception by Marx was of a Kentridge
watercolor.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 30, South African
President Jacob Zuma accepted "very substantial damages" from Britain's
Guardian newspaper over an article that wrongly suggested he was a
rapist.
(AP, 7/30/09)
2009 Aug 8, In South Africa US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and South African President Jacob
Zuma pledged to cement closer ties between their new administrations.
(AFP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 11, In South Africa a
report to the Parliament said first year students at 4 universities
were found to be unable to read or write properly. The country’s
education system was described as dysfunctional.
(SSFC, 8/16/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 20, Angola and South
Africa signed a number of trade agreements including cooperation in the
oil sector, following major bilateral talks aimed at strengthening
economic relations.
(AFP, 8/20/09)
2009 Aug 24, In Rustenberg, South
Africa some 13,000 platinum miners at Impala Platinum, the world's
second-largest producer, downed tools over a pay dispute.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, In South Africa
soldiers, demanding higher wages, tried to scale the fence at the Union
Buildings where President Jacob Zuma has his office. Police used
teargas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse the soldiers, who
marched despite a court order barring their protest.
(AP, 9/1/09)
2009 Sep 1, South Africa’s defense
ministry said it has issued around 2,000 letters of dismissal to
soldiers who staged an illegal march on Aug 26 and tried to storm the
seat of government.
(AFP, 9/1/09)
2009 Sep 11, In South Africa
reports on gender testing on running sensation Caster Semenya has
determined she has male and female sexual organs. This triggered
outrage and dealt a blow to her family, who may have been unaware of
the reported condition. There was worry about how the 18-year-old will
handle all this. Testing determined that Semenya has internal testes,
meaning the runner herself, who was raised in a poor village, may have
been unaware of such a condition. The condition is generally referred
to as intersexuality. The older term for someone who has both male and
female organs is hermaphrodite.
(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 11, South Africa and the
European Union started a summit expected to be dominated by calls from
African nations for sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted.
(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 27, In Venezuela Pres.
Hugo Chavez proposed that South American and African nations unite to
create a cross-continental mining corporation to keep control of their
resources. Chavez made diplomatic inroads in Africa at a summit of
South American and African leaders where he offered Venezuela's help in
oil projects, mining and financial assistance. Venezuela signed
agreements to work together on oil projects with South Africa,
Mauritania, Niger, Sudan and Cape Verde.
(Reuters, 9/27/09)(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Oct 9, Japanese officials
said they have obtained rights to develop platinum mines in South
Africa and Botswana in a bid to ensure a stable supply of the metal.
The government-backed Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (JOGMEC)
said it has signed a contract with Discovery Metals in Australia to
jointly develop nickel and platinum mines in northeast Botswana. It has
also inked another deal with Canadian firm Platinum Group Metals to
explore for platinum in South Africa.
(AFP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 13, In South Africa
police fired tear gas and rubber bullets, wounding several protesters
demanding better sanitation, electricity and housing in impoverished
black townships. Tires burned and rubbish littered the streets of
Standerton, 150 km (90 miles) south-east of Johannesburg, and shops
were closed after thousands of people marched on the municipal offices
in the town from nearby Sakhile township.
(Reuters, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 15, South African police
fired rubber bullets at residents in Diepsloot, a poor settlement north
of Johannesburg, injuring 19 people protesting poor living standards.
The protests have spread from Standerton, about 90 miles (150km)
southeast of Johannesburg, to at least four other towns in eastern
South Africa this week.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 21, South Africa’s
President Jacob Zuma said Zimbabwe must not return to instability,
after holding talks with PM Morgan Tsvangirai who has cut ties within
his unity government. Tsvangirai flew to South Africa after meeting
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza a day earlier and then headed to
the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola to brief leaders on
Zimbabwe's worst impasse in eight months.
(AFP, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 26, In South Africa
Harmony Gold Mining Co. said four workers were trapped underground at
its Target mine in the country's Free State province after ground fell
on them in a section of the mine.
(Reuters, 10/26/09)
2009 Nov 11, Scientists in South
Africa said that a newly discovered dinosaur species that roamed the
Earth about 200 million years ago may help explain how the creatures
evolved into the largest animals on land. The Aardonyx celestae was a
23-foot- (7-meter-) long small-headed herbivore with a huge barrel of a
chest. The species walked on its hind legs but could drop to all fours.
(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 13, South Africa’s
President Jacob Zuma said police do not have a "license to kill," a day
after his deputy police minister urged officers to "shoot the bastards"
in fighting criminals.
(AFP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 14, In South Africa a
civilian pilot was killed when his fighter jet crashed shortly before
he was to participate in an air show near Bredasdorp, about 200 km west
of Cape Town.
(Reuters, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 14, In South Africa
Kavisha Seevnarain (26) was carjacked and then forced at gunpoint to go
to ATMs to take out money. She was then thrown off a 200-foot tall
bridge south of Durban and survived with seven broken ribs and a
fractured pelvis.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Nov 18, South African police
fired rubber bullets to disperse a mob who attacked shacks belonging to
hundreds of migrants following several days of tension. Up to 2,700
Zimbabwean asylum seekers have set up a temporary "safety camp" in a
rural South African town following attacks on their shacks in a dispute
over jobs.
(Reuters, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 27, Zimbabwe and South
Africa signed a bilateral investment agreement which would protect
investments made by nationals of both countries in each other's
territory.
(AFP, 11/27/09)
2009 Dec 1, In South Africa Pres.
Zuma said on World AIDS Day that all HIV-positive babies will be
treated and testing expanded, a dramatic and eagerly awaited shift in a
country that has more people living with HIV than any other.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 7, South Africa offered
to slash the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent by
2025, but in exchange wants rich nations to expand aid for poor
countries to cope with climate change.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 10, South Africa said it
has suspended dozens of immigration officials being investigated for
giving South African citizenship to foreigners, mainly from Pakistan.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 10, In South Africa the
Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) said it has
approved a 10-million-dollar grant to fund the expansion of Zimbabwe's
Freda Rebecca gold mine.
(AFP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 12, In South Africa drums
and traditional dancers kicked off the Miss World pageant in
Johannesburg. The glitzy night began in the shadow of reports that one
contestant was linked to a religious cult. Kaiane Aldorino from
Gibraltar was named the new Miss World.
(AFP, 12/12/09)(AP, 12/13/09)
(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 16, South Africa's former
health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (69) died. She gained
notoriety for her dogged promotion of lemons, garlic and olive oil to
treat AIDS.
(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 16, In South Korea at
least 14 elderly people were killed and 17 injured when their bus
plunged off a mountain road.
(AFP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 30, In Burundi the last
South African soldiers from the African Union Special Task Force still
operating in Burundi completed their mission and left the country for
good to return to South Africa.
(AFP, 12/31/09)
2009 Andre Brink, South Africa
novelist, authored his memoir “A Fork in the Road.”
(Econ, 2/14/09, p.95)
2009 Mark Gevisser, a South
African journalist, authored A Legacy of Liberation,” a condensed
version of his 2007 biography “Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred.”
(WSJ, 4/17/09, p.W6)
2009 R.W. Johnson authored “South
Africa’s Brave New World: The Beloved Country Since the End of
Apartheid.”
(Econ, 4/18/09, p.88)
2009 Alec Russell authored “Bring
Me My Machine Gun: The Battle for the Soul of South Africa from Mandela
to Zuma.”
(WSJ, 4/17/09, p.W6)
2009 South Africa’s population
stood at about 50 million. It was one of the world’s most violent
countries with some 50 murders, 100 rapes, 700 burglaries and 500-plus
violent assaults per day. Only one in ten rapes was believed to be
recorded.
(Econ, 10/3/09, p.58)
2010 Jan 4, In South Africa Pres.
Jacob Zuma formalized his marriage to a third wife in a traditional
ceremony in rural KwaZulu-Natal province.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 14, Key southern African
leaders gathered in the Mozambican capital Maputo for a special summit
on the political crises in Zimbabwe and Madagascar. A medical aid group
said Zimbabweans crossing illegally into neighboring South Africa after
holidays at home are being raped and robbed by gangs on both sides of
the border.
(AFP, 1/14/10)(AP, 1/14/10)
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Subject = South Africa
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