South Africa holds first multiracial elections
More than 22 million South Africans turn out to cast ballots in the countrys first multiracial parliamentary elections.An overwhelming majority chose anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela to head a new coalition government that included his African National Congress Party former President F.W.de Klerks National Party and Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezis Inkatha Freedom Party.
In May Mandela was inaugurated as president becoming South Africas first black head of state.In 1944 Mandela a lawyer joined the African National Congress (ANC) the oldest black political organization in South Africa where he became a leader of Johannesburgs youth wing of the ANC.In 1952 he became deputy national president of the ANC advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheidSouth Africas institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation.However after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960 Mandela helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.In 1961 he was arrested for treason and although acquitted he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country.
Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage.In June 1964 he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison.Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison.Confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry.
He could write and receive a letter once every six months and once a year he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes.However Mandelas resolve remained unbroken and while remaining the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island.He was later moved to another location where he lived under house arrest.In 1989 F.W.
de Klerk became South Africas president and set about dismantling apartheid.De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC suspended executions and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela.Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government.In 1993 Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
One year later the ANC won an electoral majority in the countrys first free elections and Mandela was elected South Africas president a position he held until 1999.
