| Shell House massacre | |||||||
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| Part of the run-up to the 1994 South African general election | |||||||
  Shell House Shell House (South Africa) | |||||||
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The Shell House massacre was a 1994 shooting incident that took place at Shell House, the headquarters of the African National Congress (ANC), in central Johannesburg, South Africa in the lead up to the 1994 elections. [2]
Shell House (not to be confused with Luthuli House, where the ANC later relocated) at 51 Plein Street, Johannesburg, South Africa was the headquarters of the ANC after the organisation was unbanned until 1997. On 28 March 1994, about 20,000 Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) supporters marched to Shell House in protest against the 1994 elections that the IFP was intending to boycott.
The ANC people opened fire, killing nineteen people. [3] At the time, guards claimed that the IFP supporters were storming the building or that a tip-off had been received of that being planned.
The Nugent Commission of Inquiry into the killings rejected that explanation. The commission's conclusion was that the shooting by ANC guards was unjustified.[ citation needed ]
The incident reflected the rising tensions between the ANC and IFP, which had begun in the 1980s in KwaZulu-Natal and had then spread to other provinces in the 1990s. The IFP claimed that the ANC was intent on undermining traditional authorities and the power of Zulu chiefs; the ANC saw a power struggle as the demise of apartheid was finalised.[ citation needed ]
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The incident triggered a state of emergency across eleven magisterial districts in the East Rand, as well as the whole of the KwaZulu and Natal province. [4] [2] [5]
In June 1995, ANC and then President Nelson Mandela claimed that he had given the order to defend Shell House, even if it should require killing people. [6] In 1995 Willem Ratte laid a complaint of murder against president Nelson Mandela at the police headquarters in Pretoria [7] for the Shell House massacre.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission granted amnesty to 11 people concerning the massacre.
The Inkatha Freedom Party is a right-wing political party in South Africa. The party has been led by Velenkosini Hlabisa since the party's 2019 National General Conference. Mangosuthu Buthelezi founded the party in 1975 and led it until 2019. The IFP is currently the fourth largest party in the National Assembly of South Africa, in 2014 yielding third place to the Economic Freedom Fighters, formed in 2013. Although registered as a national party, it has had only minor electoral success outside its home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
General elections were held in South Africa between 26 and 29 April 1994. The elections were the first in which citizens of all races were allowed to take part, and were therefore also the first held with universal suffrage. The election was conducted under the direction of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), and marked the culmination of the four-year process that ended apartheid.
Prince Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi is a South African politician and Zulu traditional leader who is currently a Member of Parliament and the traditional prime minister to the Zulu royal family. He was Chief Minister of the KwaZulu bantustan during apartheid and founded the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in 1975. He also served as Minister of Home Affairs from 1994 to 2004.
Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu was the King of the Zulu nation from 1968 to his death in 2021.
Victoria Nonyamezelo Mxenge was a South African anti-apartheid activist; she was trained as a nurse and midwife, and later began practising law.
1994 in South Africa saw the transition from South Africa's National Party government who had ruled the country since 1948 and had advocated the apartheid system for most of its history, to the African National Congress (ANC) who had been outlawed in South Africa since the 1950s for its opposition to apartheid. The ANC won a majority in the first multiracial election held under universal suffrage. Previously, only white people were allowed to vote. There were some incidents of violence in the Bantustans leading up to the elections as some leaders of the Bantusans opposed participation in the elections, while other citizens wanted to vote and become part of South Africa. There were also bombings aimed at both the African National Congress and the National Party and politically-motivated murders of leaders of the opposing ANC and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
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.
Themba Harry Gwala was a revolutionary leader in the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP) in South Africa.
South Africa since 1994 transitioned from the system of apartheid to one of majority rule. The election of 1994 resulted in a change in government with the African National Congress (ANC) coming to power. The ANC retained power after subsequent elections in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019. Children born during this period are known as the born-free generation, and those aged eighteen or older, were able to vote for the first time in 2014.
Thomas Titus Nkobi was a senior leader of the South African African National Congress (ANC) and a key figure in the Anti-Apartheid movement. Until his death he was the Treasurer General of the ANC and also its Member of Parliament.
Operation Marion was a domestic military operation fielded by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the 1980s. Afrikaner security was deemed to be closely linked to Zulu security.
Municipal elections were held in South Africa on 18 May 2011, electing new councils for all municipalities in the country. Municipal elections are held every five years, and the previous municipal elections were held in 2006. The first municipal elections following the reorganisation of municipalities took place in December 2000.
Zwelini Lawrence Mkhize is a South African medical doctor and politician who served as the Minister of Health from May 2019 until his resignation on 5 August 2021. He previously served as the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from 2018 to 2019. Before that, he was the fifth Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 2009 to 2013.
The African National Congress (ANC) has been the governing party of the Republic of South Africa since 1994. The ANC was founded on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein and is the oldest liberation movement in Africa.
There have been a number of political assassinations in post-apartheid South Africa. In 2013 it was reported that there had been more than 450 political assassinations in the province of KwaZulu-Natal since the end of apartheid in 1994. In July 2013 the Daily Maverick reported that there had been "59 political murders in the last five years". In August 2016 it was reported that there had been at least twenty political assassinations in the run up to the local government elections on the 3rd of August that year, most of them in KwaZulu-Natal.
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.
Siphiwe Mvuyane was a South African police officer who died on 9 May 1993. During the period of "low intensity warfare" in South Africa which largely pitted the African National Congress (ANC) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Siphiwe Mvuyane was on the side of the IFP. During the period of the "low intensity warfare", the IFP was the sole ruling party of the Bantustan KwaZulu government, and worked in collaboration with the apartheid government, whereas the ANC was operating underground; as a result the IFP had an upper hand over the ANC when it came to the warfare. But post apartheid, the African National Congress (ANC) became the governing party in South Africa whereas the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) became one of the opposition parties in the South African parliament, as a result the ANC gained the upper hand over the IFP in the remaining years of the warfare as the ANC was in control of the state apparatus by virtue of being the governing party. The IFP leadership denied its involvement in sanctioning and orchestrating political violence in the furtherance of its political objectives during the period of the "low intensity warfare" in South Africa.
Shell House is the former head office of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa. It is a 22 floor building located at 51 Plein Street, Johannesburg. It was the scene of the Shell House massacre on 28 March 1994, when ANC security guards opened fire on a crowd of about 20,000 supporters of the rival Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), killing nineteen people. The ANC relocated its head office from Shell House to Luthuli House in 1997.
KwaZulu-Natal is one of the nine multi-member constituencies of the National Assembly of South Africa, the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa, the national legislature of South Africa. The constituency was established in 1994 when the National Assembly was established by the Interim Constitution following the end of Apartheid. It is conterminous with the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The constituency currently elects 41 of the 400 members of the National Assembly using the closed party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2019 general election it had 5,524,666 registered electors.
Lionel Mtshali was a South African politician who was Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 1999 to 2004. He was known for unilaterally ordering the expansion of the province's antiretrovirals programme during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in defiance of the policy of the national government under President Thabo Mbeki. A founding member and former chairperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Mtshali was also national Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in the government of President Nelson Mandela from 1996 to 1999.
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