THE WORLD ATLAS

State · 1990–1994

End of apartheid

Pretoria, South Africa

From 1948 South Africa's white-minority government enforced apartheid, a system of institutionalised racial segregation. In February 1990 President F.

W. de Klerk announced the repeal of discriminatory laws and lifted the ban on anti-apartheid groups, and that year released Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison; negotiations led to the country's first elections open to citizens of all races on 26–29 April 1994, won by Mandela's African National Congress with about 62 percent of the vote.

See it on the map

F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at Davos, January 1992, during the negotiations to end apartheid
F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at Davos, January 1992, during the negotiations to end apartheid World Economic Forum · CC BY-SA 2.0

Why it mattered

Mandela's inauguration on 10 May 1994 as South Africa's first Black president, heading a Government of National Unity, ended minority rule; he and de Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for ending apartheid peacefully.

Related

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