The ANC party whose president, Jacob Zuma, saw his corruption charges thrown out Friday, championed the campaign against apartheid before becoming the country's ruling party.

Here are the major dates in the party's history of struggle:

Early years
  • 8 January 1912: African National Congress is formed with John Dube as president and Sol Plaatjie as secretary-general. Intends bringing all Africans together to defend their rights.
  • 1927: Josiah Gumede is elected president.
  • 1930: Gumede forms Independent ANC. Pixley Seme becomes ANC president.
  • 1940: Alfred Xuma is elected president.
  • 1943: Women admitted into the ANC.
  • 1944: Formation of ANC Youth League led by Fort Hare University students Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu.
  • 1948: Formation of ANC Women's League.
  • 1952: Chief Albert Luthuli is elected president; Mandela as deputy.
  • 1959: Rebel faction splits to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

    1960s
  • 21 March 1960: South African police open fire on group of unarmed black protesters in Sharpeville township, near Johannesburg, killing more than 60.
  • 7 April 1960: ANC and PAC are banned after taking up anti-pass campaigns, thousands arrested.
  • 16 Dec 1961: Formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), ANC's military wing. Mandela is first commander in chief.
  • 12 June 1964: After famous speech from dock (democracy "is an ideal for which I am prepared to die"), Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • 21 July 1967: Luthuli is killed after being hit by a train in what is widely thought to have been an assassination operation. Tambo takes over as leader.
  • 25 April 1969: ANC holds conference in Tanzania where it decides to open membership to other races.

    1970s
  • 16 June 1976: Riots begin in the Johannesburg township of Soweto against the enforced use of the Afrikaans language in schools, leading to the death of hundreds of black youths at the hands of police.
  • 12 Sept 1977: Anti-apartheid activist and black consciousness leader Steve Biko dies in police custody.

    1980s
  • 16 June 1985: ANC leadership in exile holds first unofficial secret talks with apartheid regime officials in Zambia.
  • 23 Dec 1985: Five civilians are killed in ANC bomb attack in a shopping mall near Durban.
  • 5 July 1989: First clandestine meeting between Mandela and hardline National Party President P. W. Botha.
  • 14 August 1989: F.W. de Klerk replaces Botha as president; declares the need for change.
  • 13 Dec 1989: First official meeting between Mandela and de Klerk at presidential residence in Cape Town.

    1990s
  • 11 Feb 1990: Mandela is released from Pollsmoor Prison after 27 years behind bars.
  • 6 Aug 1990: ANC announces suspension of armed struggle.
  • 13 Dec 1990: Tambo returns to South Africa after 30 years in exile
  • 30 June 1991: Official abolition of apartheid laws.
  • 5 July 1991: Mandela elected ANC president, replacing the ailing Tambo.
  • 24 April 1993: Tambo dies from stroke.
  • 27 April 1994: ANC wins the historic first multi-party elections; Mandela inaugurated first black president of the country.
  • 16 Dec 1997: Thabo Mbeki is elected ANC president at the 50th congress in place of the retiring Mandela; Jacob Zuma is deputy.
  • 16 June 1999: Mbeki is installed as head of state after the ANC's landslide victory in the second multi-racial elections.

    2000s
  • 14 April 2004: Mbeki re-elected head of state.
  • 14 June 2005: Mbeki fires Zuma from his post as deputy president.
  • 18 Dec 2007: Zuma defeats Mbeki in election for ANC president.
  • 12 Sept 2008: The way to the South African presidency is open for Zuma after a court throws out corruption charges brought against him.

    AFP

    RSS
    Digg
    de.li.cious
    facebook


    Print this page
    Send this article to a friend