Frederik Willem de Klerk,OMG,DMS was a South African politician who served as state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996. As South Africa's last head of state from the era of white-minority rule,he and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage. Ideologically a conservative and an economic liberal,he led the National Party (NP) from 1989 to 1997.
Pieter Willem Botha,was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989.
General elections were held in South Africa on 2 June 1999. The result was a landslide victory for the governing African National Congress (ANC),which gained fourteen seats. Incumbent president Nelson Mandela declined to seek re-election as president on grounds of his age. This election was notable for the sharp decline of the New National Party,previously the National Party (NP),which without former State President F.W. de Klerk lost more than half of their former support base. The liberal Democratic Party became the largest opposition party,after being the fifth largest party in the previous elections in 1994. The number of parties represented in the National Assembly increased to thirteen,with the United Democratic Movement,jointly headed by former National Party member Roelf Meyer,and former ANC member Bantu Holomisa,being the most successful of the newcomers with fourteen seats.
Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha,was a South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era,the longest-serving in South African history. Known as a liberal within the party,Botha served to present a friendly,conciliatory face on the regime,while criticised internally. He was a leading contender for the leadership of the National Party upon John Vorster's resignation in 1978,but was ultimately not chosen. Staying in the government after the first non-racial general election in 1994,he served under Mandela as Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs from 1994 to 1996.
Bantubonke Harrington Holomisa is a South African Member of Parliament and President of the United Democratic Movement.
A referendum on ending apartheid was held in South Africa on 17 March 1992. The referendum was limited to white South African voters,who were asked whether or not they supported the negotiated reforms begun by State President F. W. de Klerk two years earlier,in which he proposed to end the apartheid system that had been implemented since 1948. The result of the election was a large victory for the "yes" side,which ultimately resulted in apartheid being lifted. Universal suffrage was introduced two years later.
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.
Lukas Daniel Barnard,known as Niël Barnard,is a former head of South Africa's National Intelligence Service and was notable for his behind-the-scenes role in preparing former president Nelson Mandela and former South African presidents P.W. Botha and F. W. de Klerk for Mandela's eventual and,as he saw it,inevitable,release from prison and rise to political power.
The Bisho massacre occurred on 7 September 1992 in Bisho,in the then nominally independent homeland of Ciskei which is now part of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Twenty-eight African National Congress supporters and one soldier were shot dead by the Ciskei Defence Force during a protest march when they attempted to enter Bisho to demand the reincorporation of Ciskei into South Africa during the final years of apartheid.
Derek Andre Hanekom is a South African retired politician,activist and former cabinet minister currently serving as the interim Chairman of South African Airways.
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.
John Solane Absolom Mavuso was a South African politician who served as Minister for General Services in Nelson Mandela's Government of National Unity between March and June 1996. He represented the National Party in Parliament. However,in the 1950s,Mavuso was a Treason Triallist and a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress.
Renier Stephanus Schoeman is a South African politician,businessman and former civil servant who represented the National Party (NP) and New National Party (NNP) in Parliament from 1985 to 2004. He was the provincial leader of the NNP in KwaZulu-Natal from 1999 until the party's demise.
Stefanus Johannes "Fanus" Schoeman was a South African politician and diplomat who represented the National Party (NP) in Parliament until 1999. Formerly the leader of the NP in Pretoria,he became a diplomat after leaving Parliament.
Andries Stephanus Beyers is a South African politician who served in Parliament from 1992 to 1999. He was the national secretary of the far-right Conservative Party from 1987 to 1992 but he later represented the National Party.
Samuel Johannes de Beer is a South African politician and former Christian minister who served in Parliament from 1974 to 2001,excepting a brief hiatus from 1998 to 1999. He subsequently joined the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.
Sipo Elijah Mzimela was a South African politician,anti-apartheid activist,and Christian minister. He was the first post-apartheid Minister of Correctional Services from 1994 to 1998. Originally a member of the African National Congress (ANC),he joined the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in 1990 and then the United Democratic Movement (UDM) in 1999.
Daniel Pieter Antonie "Danie" Schutte is a South African politician and lawyer who was the last Minister of Home Affairs of the apartheid era from 1993 to 1994. He represented the National Party (NP) both in the apartheid-era House of Assembly and in the post-apartheid National Assembly.
Anthon Tobias "Tobie" Meyer is a South African politician who was Deputy Minister of Land Affairs from 1991 to 1996. He represented the National Party (NP) in Parliament from 1987 until 1996,when he resigned from politics to concentrate on his commercial farming interests.
