The Republic of South Africa is a unitary parliamentary democratic republic. The President of South Africa serves both as head of state and as head of government. The President is elected by the National Assembly and must retain the confidence of the Assembly in order to remain in office. South Africans also elect provincial legislatures which govern each of the country's nine provinces.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,also known as Winnie Mandela,was a South African anti-apartheid activist and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. A convicted kidnapper,she served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003,and from 2009 until her death,and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party,she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation".
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded on 12 February 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA),and tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing National Party under the Suppression of Communism Act,1950. The Communist Party was reconstituted underground and re-launched as the SACP in 1953,participating in the struggle to end the apartheid system. It is a member of the ruling Tripartite Alliance alongside the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and through this it influences the South African government. The party's Central Committee is the party's highest decision-making structure.
The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in apartheid-era South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964,after a group of anti-apartheid activists were arrested on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. The farm had been the secret location for meetings of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK),the newly-formed armed wing of the African National Congress. The trial took place in Pretoria at the Palace of Justice and the Old Synagogue and led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela,Walter Sisulu,Govan Mbeki,Ahmed Kathrada,Denis Goldberg,Raymond Mhlaba,Elias Motsoaledi,Andrew Mlangeni. Many were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life.
Yossel Mashel Slovo,commonly known as Joe Slovo,was a South African politician,and an opponent of the apartheid system. A Marxist-Leninist,he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Communist Party (SACP),a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC),and a commander of the ANC's military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). Slovo was a delegate to the multiracial Congress of the People of June 1955 which drew up the Freedom Charter. He was imprisoned for six months in 1960,and emerged as a leader of uMkhonto we Sizwe the following year. He lived in exile from 1963 to 1990,conducting operations against the apartheid régime from the United Kingdom,Angola,Mozambique,and Zambia. In 1990,he returned to South Africa,and took part in the negotiations that ended apartheid. He became known for proposing the "sunset clauses" covering the 5 years following a democratic election,including guarantees and concessions to all sides,and his fierce non-racialist stance. After the elections of 1994,he became Minister for Housing in Nelson Mandela's government. He died of cancer in 1995.
Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada OMSG,sometimes known by the nickname "Kathy",was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist.
The apartheid system in South Africa was ended through a series of bilateral and multi-party negotiations between 1990 and 1993. The negotiations culminated in the passage of a new interim Constitution in 1993,a precursor to the Constitution of 1996;and in South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994,won by the African National Congress (ANC) liberation movement.
Joel Netshitenzhe is a South African politician and strategist,known for his policy and communications work for the African National Congress (ANC). He served as head of communications under President Nelson Mandela (1994);head of Government Communication and Information System (1998–2006);and head of the policy unit in the Presidency (2001–2009) under Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma,though he was viewed as a particularly close ally of Mbeki's. A former anti-apartheid activist,Netshitenzhe was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee between 1991 and 2022,and he was a member of the ANC's delegation to the negotiations that ended apartheid.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) is the political party's highest decision-making body in between its party conferences. It serves as the primary executive organ responsible for leading and governing the ANC,directing the party's policies,strategies,and overall operations. The NEC is elected every five years at the ANC's National Conference and consists of 87 members,including the party's top officials,such as the president of the ANC,deputy president,chairperson,secretary-general,two deputy secretaries-general,and treasurer-general.
Derek Andre Hanekom is a South African retired politician,activist and former cabinet minister currently serving as the interim Chairman of South African Airways.
In 1953,the Public Safety Act was enacted by the apartheid South African government. This Act empowered the government to declare stringent states of emergency and increased penalties for protesting against or supporting the repeal of a law.
The Unlawful Organizations Act No 34 of 1960 allowed the apartheid government of South Africa to declare unlawful any organizations deemed to threaten public order or the safety of the public. This legislation was enacted within a few weeks of 1960's Sharpeville Massacre. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and African National Congress (ANC) were immediately declared unlawful. Nelson Mandela recorded in his autobiography,"We were now,all of us,outlaws". The Indemnity Act that followed legislatively indemnified supporters of the apartheid regime from any wrongdoing connected to the massacre.
Baldwin Sipho "Ben" Ngubane was a politician from South Africa. He held multiple positions in the post-apartheid government of the country. In particular,he was Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 1997 to 1999 and Minister of Arts,Culture,Science and Technology from 1994 until 31 August 1996 and from February 1999 until April 2004.
On 2 February 1990,the State President of South Africa F. W. de Klerk delivered a speech at the opening of the 1990 session of the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town in which he announced sweeping reforms that marked the beginning of the negotiated transition from apartheid to constitutional democracy. The reforms promised in the speech included the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) and other anti-apartheid organisations,the release of political prisoners including Nelson Mandela,the end of the state of emergency,and a moratorium on the death penalty.
Nelson Mandela took the oath as President of South Africa on 10 May 1994 and announced a Government of National Unity on 11 May 1994. The cabinet included members of Mandela's African National Congress,the National Party and Inkatha Freedom Party,as Clause 88 of the Interim Constitution of South Africa required that all parties winning more than 20 seats in National Assembly should be given representation in the cabinet. Upon its formation it comprised 27 ministers,with a further 13 deputy ministers.
The 49th National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) was held from 17 to 22 December 1994 in Bloemfontein,the city in which the ANC was founded. The conference took place several months after the South Africa's first democratic elections,at which the ANC had won 62.65% of the national vote and incumbent ANC President Nelson Mandela had been elected national President. It was therefore the ANC's first national conference as a ruling party,and only its second national conference since its unbanning in 1990.
Joyce Nomafa Sikakane,later Sikakane-Rankin,is a South African journalist and activist. She was detained by the Apartheid South African government for 17 months for her anti-apartheid activism.
Penuell Mpapa Maduna is a South African politician and businessman. An anti-apartheid activist in his youth,Maduna was appointed to President Nelson Mandela's government in 1994. Thereafter he served as Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs and,between 1999 and 2004,as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development. Holding a doctorate of law from Unisa,he was also a long-time legal adviser to his party,the African National Congress,which he represented during the negotiations to end apartheid.
Chris Hani,General-Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP),was assassinated by right-wing extremist Janusz Waluśon 10 April 1993. The assassination,later tied to members within the Conservative Party,occurred outside Hani's home in Dawn Park during a peak period of progressive anti-apartheid momentum in South Africa. After the assassination,racially fuelled riots drew international attention to the instability of the political division within South Africa,leading to an inclusive national democratic election in April 1994,won by the African National Congress (ANC). Waluśand his accomplice Clive Derby-Lewis were both sentenced to death after their arrests in 1993;the sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.
Mohseen Valli Moosa is a South African lawyer,farmer,developmental businessman and political activist who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the first Senate after 1994 as the youngest senator,and in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) from 1994 to 2003. He resigned from Parliament in January 2003 to pursue business interests in development,farming,mining and wine industries.
