Timeline of key related events

Struggle for Social Justice:
Mandela Puts Apartheid on Trial at Rivonia
TIMELINE OF KEY RELATED EVENTS
1912

What becomes the African National Congress (ANC) is formed on January 8. In his Rivonia speech, Nelson Mandela said its aim since its founding was “to defend the rights of the African people.”

1944

Mandela joins the ANC. Six years later, he becomes president of the ANC Youth League.

1948

Afrikaner-dominated National Party comes to power in South Africa and begins white supremacist policy of apartheid (“apartness” in Afrikaans). Afrikaners are a South African ethnic group of mixed continental European descent, primarily Dutch, German, and French Protestant.

1950

Passed on July 7, the Group Areas Act imposes territorial restrictions on blacks and the Population Registration Act requires that all South Africans be identified and registered as White, Black African (“Bantu”), or Coloured.

On July 17, the Suppression of Communism Act comes into force, prohibiting activity “which aims at the encouragement of feelings of hostility between the European and non-European races of [South Africa].”

1952

“Pass Laws” Act requires black South Africans to carry pass books (“dompas”) at all times when in areas where whites are.

On June 26, the African National Congress launches the Defiance Campaign, which deploys a strategy of passive resistance to mobilize anti-apartheid protestors, risking mass arrest in civil disobedience. Mandela is in charge of volunteers. More than 8,500 people defy apartheid laws and are arrested.
1953

South African regime responds to Defiance Campaign by passing the Public Safety Act on March 4. It grants the government broad powers to declare states of emergency and allows laws to be made “retrospective” for four days to cover police emergency actions.

Bantu Education Act (October 5) nationalizes and severely restricts education for blacks, called “Bantus”).

1955

Freedom Charter adopted by Congress of the People at Kliptown, Johannesburg on June 25-26. Mandela calls this “a blueprint for the liberation struggle and the future of the nation” in his autobiography.

1956

Mandela and 155 other anti-apartheid activists are arrested on December 5 and charged with high treason. This “Treason Trial” drags on for more than four years before Mandela and 27 remaining defendants were found not guilty.

1960

Police kill 69 and wound 186 peaceful demonstrators, many shot in the back while fleeing, in Sharpeville, 45 miles from Johannesburg, on March 21. The Sharpeville Massacre becomes a turning point in the organized resistance to the apartheid regime.

United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 134 on April 1, its first action on South Africa, calling on the regime to end apartheid.
The South African government passes the Unlawful Organization Act on April 7, which bans the ANC, driving it underground.
1961

Following a referendum restricted to white voters, South Africa severs ties with Great Britain and becomes a republic on May 31.

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK, “Spear of the Nation”) issues Manifesto on December 16. Mandela is cofounder of MK, often described as “armed wing” of African National Congress.
1962

Mandela goes underground after Treason Trial. He is captured and charged on August 5 with inciting workers to strike and leaving the country illegally. In this “Incitement Trial,” he is convicted and sentenced to five years in prison on November 7.

The General Law Amendment Act, known as the “Sabotage Act,” is enacted on June 27. It broadly defines sabotage and prescribes a maximum penalty of death.
1963

African National Congress leaders are seized on July 11 in a government raid at Lillesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a suburb of Johannesburg. Evidence incriminating the already imprisoned Nelson Mandela is found at the scene.

The ANC leaders arrested at Rivonia, along with Mandela and other alleged conspirators, are charged with the capital crimes of sabotage and conspiracy to commit sabotage. The venue for the “Rivonia Trial” is moved from Johannesburg to the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, an Afrikaner stronghold and the regime’s administrative capital. Trial proceedings begin on October 9.
1964

Mandela makes his “I am prepared to die” Speech from the Dock at Rivonia Trial, April 20.

United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 190 condemning South Africa for “arbitrary” Rivonia trial and imprisoning those opposing apartheid, June 9.
Justice Quartus de Wet sentences 8 of 9 remaining Rivonia Trialists, including Mandela, to life imprisonment on June 12, a day after finding them guilty.
Mandela is transferred on July 13 to the prison on Robben Island, near Cape Town, where he will remain for nearly 18 years, until he is sent to Pollsmer Prison in March 1982.
1985

Mandela rejects South African President PW Botha’s offer of release from prison if he renounces violence.

1989

FW De Klerk becomes president of South Africa and meets with Mandela.

1990

Nelson Mandela is unconditionally freed on February 11, after 27 years as a political prisoner.

1993

Mandela and De Klerk are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to peacefully terminate apartheid and move towards a democratic South Africa.

1994

South Africa enacts a transitional “Interim Constitution,” which comes into force on April 27, the same day that Nelson Mandela is democratically elected president of South Africa.

1995

Mandela publishes acclaimed autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

1997

The new national constitution of the Republic of South Africa takes effect on February 4.

2004

New Constitutional Court opens in Johannesburg on 40^th anniversary of Mandela’s Rivonia speech—the famous final two sentences of which are engraved on a large panel at the Court building.

2013

Nelson Mandela dies at 95 on December 13, prompting a global outpouring of tributes and recognition as one of the world’s greatest political leaders of the twentieth century.

National Council for the Social Studies 2016
Presentation materials available: www.ambar.org/publicedevents