1899 The South African War between Britain and the Boer Republics ends with British victory in 1902.

1910 Union of South Africa comes into being.

1912 South African Native National Congress or SANNC (later African National Congress or ANC) is founded.

1913 The Natives' Land Act prescribes that no African person be allowed to own land outside designated reserves (approximately 7% of the land is allocated for African people, subsequently increased in 1936 to 13%).

1914 National Party is founded.

1916 Native Affairs Administration Bill confirms segregation.

1918 Formation of Afrikaner Broederbond.

1919 Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) is founded by Clements Kadalie.

1920 The Native Affairs Act creates separate administrative structures for people in African reserves.

South Africa is granted a League of Nations mandate over South West Africa.

1922 The Bondelswarts rebellion crushed in South West Africa.

The Rand revolt begins. 214 lives are lost as the strike is crushed.

1923 The Natives (Urban Areas) Act extends segregation to towns.

SANNC becomes the African National Congress (ANC).

1925 Afrikaans is adopted as an official language.

1941 The African Mineworkers' Union is formed.

1943 ANC Youth League is formed.

1946 The police crush a strike by African mineworkers.

1947 The Security Branch of the South African Police (SAP) is formed.

The beginning of apartheid:

1948 The Herenigde National Party (NP) wins a majority of seats. DF Malan becomes Prime Minister.

1949 Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act is passed.

1950 The Group Areas Act provides for areas to be declared for the exclusive use of one particular racial group and makes it compulsory for people to live in an area designated for the group under which they were classified. The Suppression of Communism Act prohibits organisations and people from promoting Communism. Later amendments extend the prohibition to cover any efforts to overthrow the state and provide for the banning of meetings and people, the receiving of donations, the prohibition on people practising law and deportations. The Population Registration Act provides for the classification of all South Africans into one of four racial groups. The Immorality Act prohibits sexual relations across the colour bar.

1951 The Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act grants magistrates the power to evict squatters from urban areas and to demolish their dwellings.

1952 The ANC launches the Defiance Campaign.

The Native Laws Amendment Act is enacted. The Abolition of Passes Act introduces reference books for Africans.

1953 The Public Safety Act provides for a state of emergency to be declared. The Minister of Law and Order, the commissioner of the SAP, a magistrate or a commissioned officer can detain any person for reasons of public safety. A magistrate or the commissioner of police can ban meetings and gatherings. (The Act is passed in response to the civil disobedience campaign of the ANC and invoked for the first time after the Sharpville Massacre on 21 March 1960.) The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act is passed. The Bantu Education Act introduces a system of education for African people designed to provide them only with skills that will serve the white economy.

1954 The Natives' Resettlement Act marks the beginning of the creation of exclusively African urban townships.

1956 Coloured voters are removed from the common voters' roll. The Riotous Assemblies Act prohibits certain public open air gatherings.

The Treason Trial begins. 156 accused are charged with high treason. (The trial continues for five years during which charges are withdrawn against all but thirty- four. They are all acquitted in 1961).

In August, 20 000 women march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the extension of passes to African women.

1958 Hendrik F Verwoerd becomes Prime Minister.

1959 The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) is formed under Robert Sobukwe.

The Extension of the University Education Act provides for the segregation of English-language universities and the creation of ethnic universities. The Promotion of Bantu Self-Governing Act lays the foundation for the creation of 'independent' bantustans. An amendment to Pass Laws Act extends pass laws to women.

Both the ANC and the PAC initiate protest campaigns against the pass laws.

1960 On 21 March, sixty-nine people are killed and 186 wounded at Sharpville when police open fire on marchers protesting against the pass laws.

A national state of emergency is declared on 24 March, lasting until 31 August. 11 503 people are detained. PAC leader Sobukwe is sentenced to three years for burning his pass.

The ANC and the PAC are banned on 8 April.

The African Resistance Movement (ARM) is formed by mainly young radical whites and launches a sabotage campaign.

1961 The Indemnity Act indemnifies the government, its officers and all other persons acting under its authority and empowered to suppress internal disorder from civil or criminal proceedings. (The Act is made retrospective from 21 March 1960).

Following South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth, the first steps are taken to establish a military intelligence component in the South African Defence Force (SADF).

On 31 May, South Africa becomes an independent Republic and leaves the Commonwealth.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to ANC President, Chief Albert Luthuli, in October.

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC, is formed. MK launches its first sabotage actions on 16 December, the first in a series of over two hundred attacks on state installations over the following eighteen months.

1962 The General Law Amendment Act (Sabotage Act) increases the State President's power to declare organisations unlawful and to add further restrictions to banning orders. The Act creates the offence of sabotage by providing that any person who jeopardises law and order can be tried for sabotage for which the maximum sentence is death.

1963 The Publications and Entertainment Act extends the state's control over the media. The 'Sobukwe clause' allows for the further detention for twelve months of a person convicted of political offences. Allegations of torture and deaths in detention soon follow.

Seven senior members of MK are arrested at Lilliesleaf Farm, Rivonia on 11 July 1963. The Rivonia Treason Trial of ten people including Nelson Mandela follows. Most are sentenced to life imprisonment.

1965 The Criminal Procedure Amendment Act (180-Day Detention Law) empowers the attorney-general to order the detention of people likely to give evidence for the state in any criminal proceedings relating to certain political or common law offences. Detainees can be held in solitary confinement for six months and only state officials are permitted access to them.

1966 Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is assassinated in the House of Assembly by a parliamentary messenger, Dimitri Tsafendas on 6 September.

Balthazar J Vorster becomes Prime Minister on 13 September.

1967 The Terrorism Act is passed, in terms of which police are empowered to detain in solitary confinement for indefinite periods with no access to visitors. The public is not entitled to information relating to the identity and number of people detained.

SAP counter-insurgency training begins (followed by similar SADF training in the following year).

Compulsory military service for all white male youths is extended and all ex-servicemen become eligible for recall over a twenty-year period.

Formation of the PAC armed wing, the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (APLA).

MK guerrillas conduct their first military actions with ZIPRA in north-western Rhodesia in campaigns known as Wankie and Sepolilo. In response, SAP units are deployed in Rhodesia.

1968 The Prohibition of Political Interference Act prohibits the formation and foreign financing of non-racial political parties.

1969 The ANC holds its first Consultative (Morogoro) Conference in Tanzania, and adopts the 'Strategies and Tactics of the ANC' programme, which includes its new approach to the 'armed struggle' and 'political mobilisation'.

PAC President, Robert Sobukwe, is released after spending six years in detention (imposed after the expiry of his three-year prison sentence) and is placed under house arrest in Kimberley.

The South African Students' Organisation (SASO) is formed by black students, led by Steve Biko, in a breakaway from the white-dominated National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).

1970 The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act effectively strips all black South Africans of their citizenship by making them automatic citizens of one of the ten 'homelands'.

1971 The World Council of Churches allocates R91 000 of its annual R140 000 fund against racism to liberation movements in Southern Africa - including SWAPO, the ANC, and anti-apartheid groups.

1972 Black police are trained in anti-'terrorist' techniques by the SAP and deployed in Namibia.

Conscription is extended from nine to twelve months, followed by a nineteen-day annual call-up for five years.

Widespread student protests and expulsions of students take place at many universities in May, followed by student demonstrations which are broken up by the police.

1973 The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), a militant offshoot of the Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) is formed.

A wave of strikes begins in Durban and spreads to all major urban centres, marking the re-emergence of political protest and independent trade unionism.

African and Arab states impose an oil embargo on South Africa.

1974 The UN withdraws the credentials of the South African delegation, which loses voting but not speaking rights in the General Assembly. The ANC and PAC are granted observer status.

A Special Forces division in the SADF is established in October, followed by the expansion of reconnaissance regiments.

1975 The Inkatha Cultural Liberation Movement is formed.

Mozambique and Angola become independent.

South Africa launches Operation Savannah, an invasion of Angola with US support (but withdraws the following year).

The Special Task Force is formed in January, followed by the setting up of eighteen full-time Riot Units countrywide. (The units are formed with a strong emphasis on the use of counter-insurgency techniques and were later responsible for the policing of the 1976 student revolt).

1976 On 16 June, the Soweto uprising begins. Police open fire on approximately 10 000 pupils protesting against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. Resistance spreads nationwide and continues for several months. There are 575 official deaths, including 390 in the Transvaal and 137 in the Western Cape. Over 2 000 people are injured. Arrests, deaths in detention and trials follow the revolt. The first members of the 'Class of 76' leave South Africa for training in armed resistance.

1977 KwaZulu gains self-governance in February.

Former ANC member, Leonard Nkosi, is killed by the ANC on 9 September, after he joins the Security Branch.

Black consciousness activist, Bantu Stephen Biko, dies in detention in Pretoria on 12 September, following his detention in Port Elizabeth. Widespread protests around the country follow. Numerous other deaths in detention occur during 1977 and in subsequent years.

Conscription to military service is increased to two years; citizen force duty to thirty days a year for eight years.

Former government official, Robert Smit, and his wife, Cora Smit, are killed in a possible political assassination in the Transvaal.

With the launch of Operation Silwer, South Africa begins giving official support to UNITA.

The ANC establishes guerrilla training camps in Angola, catering for the large-scale influx of youth from the 1976 student uprisings.

The South African Students' Organisation (SASO), the Christian Institute and the Black People's Convention (BPC) are banned along with other organisations.

1978 Anti-apartheid academic and activist, Rick Turner is killed in Durban on 8 January.

The Azanian Peoples Organisation (AZAPO) is launched in May.

Prime Minister BJ Vorster is forced to resign in the wake of the Information Scandal. It is revealed that he agreed to channel millions of rands to the Department of Information for a major covert international propaganda campaign, including the launch of the Citizen newspaper in South Africa.

PW Botha becomes Prime Minister, and State President from 1984 under the new constitution. Botha's policy of 'total strategy' is introduced, involving reforms of the apartheid system, combined with extensive militarisation of the state as set out in the Defence White Paper. The introduction of the strategy follows the Venter and Van Dalsen enquiries.

South Africa accepts United Nations Resolution 435 for the independence of SWA/Namibia.

An ANC visit to Vietnam marks a shift in ANC military tactics. This is followed by the Fort Klapperkop Conference in 1979 and the Coetzee Committee in which leading security personnel review security policies towards the ANC and intelligence structures.

Kassinga Massacre: Operation Reindeer results in an SADF raid on SWAPO camps at Kassinga and Chetequera. Approximately 1 000 people are killed, 612 at Kassinga.

1979 MK Special Operations Unit is formed.

COSAS (Congress of South African Students), PEBCO (Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation) and AZASO (Azanian Students Organisation), later renamed SASCO (South African Students Congress) are formed.

The Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU) is formed, followed by the Council of Unions of South Africa (CUSA) the following year.

Chief Buthelezi and the ANC leadership in exile meet in London in October, whereafter ties are severed between Inkatha and the ANC.

1980 In what becomes known as the Silvertown Bank Siege, three MK operatives take bank employees hostage on 25 January. The operatives and two hostages are killed.

School boycotts originate in April in the Western Cape and spread nationally. Initial grievances concern mainly the standard and quality of education, but these grow into wider political protest. Street protest and police actions result in widespread violence. In the Cape, police shootings lead to over forty deaths.

1981 In the Matola raid, the first major cross-border raid into Mozambique, twenty people, including three SADF members, are killed in January.

Joe Gqabi, ANC chief representative in Zimbabwe, is assassinated in July.

The MK Special Operations Unit attacks the Voortrekkerhoogte military base in Pretoria in August.

Durban lawyer, Griffiths Mxenge, is assassinated by security police in Durban on 19 November.

The independence of the Ciskei, under Chief Lennox Sebe, is proclaimed on 4 December.

South Africa withdraws its recognition of UN resolution 435.

In Operation Protea, the SADF occupies one third of Angola.

1982 The Conservative Party (CP) is launched in March.

The ANC London offices are bombed by a South African security police team headed by Craig Williamson.

Nelson Mandela is transferred from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town in March. A worldwide 'Free Mandela' campaign begins.

Compulsory military service is extended.

1983 The national launch of the United Democratic Front (UDF) takes place in Mitchell's Plain on 20 August. The immediate goal is to oppose the introduction of the Tricameral Parliament and black municipal councils.

In the Ongoye killings on 29 October, Inkatha-aligned 'warriors' at the University of Zululand kill five and injure many in clashes between students and approximately 500 Inkatha supporters.

The End Conscription Campaign (ECC) is launched by whites opposed to conscription.

1984 Mutinies by frustrated MK soldiers at ANC camps Viana and Pango are crushed in early 1984, resulting in the execution of seven mutineers and the imprisonment of others at Quatro rehabilitation camp.

The Lusaka agreement between South Africa and Angola is signed in February, after South Africa announces its withdrawal from Angola. (The agreement is never fully implemented, as South Africa never entirely withdraws).

The Nkomati Accord is signed in March between Mozambique and South Africa. The Accord represents a non-aggression pact in which both sides pledge to cease hostile actions against each other. The Mozambique government agrees to expel all ANC military personnel.

The new constitution is enacted in September. PW Botha becomes State President.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Archbishop Desmond Tutu in December.

Mass student protests and disruptions intensify existing unrest caused by community protest activities and conflict with black local authorities.

1985 The Rand slumps and the disinvestment campaign commences. Britain and the US begin the process of adopting employment codes for companies operating in South Africa.

Mandela and other political prisoners are offered release in January if they renounce violence. Most refuse.

Widespread attacks begin on 'collaborators', including police and community councillors, by residents in both urban and rural areas across the country. These killings result in numerous 'common purpose' trials and many death sentences for those convicted.

Vigilante groups emerge nationwide. Groups such as the A-Team and the Phakathis in the Orange Free State and the A-Team in Chesterville, Durban, begin to target UDF activists. The Eagles youth club in the OFS (run by Military Intelligence from 1986) is active in the harassment of UDF leaders and violent disruption of youth meetings.

Conflict between black consciousness organisation AZAPO and the UDF erupts during a visit by US senator Edward Kennedy. Conflict continues throughout the year and spreads to other regions, including Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage where many are killed.

Violence erupts in February at Crossroads, an informal settlement in Cape Town, after the state declares that squatters in the Western Cape must move to Khayelitsha. Eighteen are killed and 200 are injured in clashes with the police.

Councillor Benjamin Kinikini is 'necklaced' and four of his young relatives killed by a crowd on 23 March. This is the first widely publicised 'necklace' killing in the country. The SAP records 406 such 'necklace' killings and 395 deaths by burning between September 1984 and December 1989; a third of these take place in the former Eastern Cape and Border regions.

A second National Consultative (Kabwe) Conference of the ANC is held in Zambia in June, marking a turning point in the ANC's approach to the struggle in South Africa. The distinction between 'hard' and 'soft' targets starts to be blurred and a desire to 'take the struggle to the white areas' is expressed.

A state of emergency is declared on 21 July 1985 in thirty-six magisterial districts. This is extended to additional areas, including the Western Cape in October 1985. The power to detain is extended to every member of the police, railways police, prison officials and army members. It becomes a crime to disclose the identity of any detainee without permission from the Minister of Law and Order. The Commissioner of Police is empowered to impose a blanket censorship on press coverage of the emergency. Thousands are detained and organisations still operating are either banned or restricted. This state of emergency lasts until March 1986.

PW Botha delivers his 'Rubicon' speech in August, in which he retreats from talk of reform.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is launched in November.

The first series of ANC landmine attacks in November leads to several deaths and injuries in the Northern and Eastern Transvaal rural areas. By the time the ANC ceases landmine operations, between twenty and forty people have died in over thirty landmine explosions.

The highest decision-making body of Inkatha, its Central Committee, declares KwaZulu and Natal 'no-go' areas for the UDF (according to a State Security Council document produced in 1989).

1986 In the 'Gugulethu Seven' killing, seven MK operatives are shot dead by security forces in an apparent ambush on 3 March. A similar method involving entrapment and/or ambush is used in the killings of the 'Nietverdient Ten' in June and the 'KwaNdebele Nine' in July.

Between April and October, paramilitary (Caprivi) training of 200 Inkatha supporters by SADF Special Forces takes place on the Caprivi Strip, South West Africa/Namibia.

Over 1.5 million people participate in the largest May Day stay away yet seen.

The United Workers Union of South Africa (UWUSA) is launched by Inkatha in May, backed by substantial covert state funding.

The nationwide state of emergency is re-imposed on 12 June, accompanied by mass detentions. (By the end of this state of emergency on 11 June 1987, over 25 000 people will have been detained at various times. The emergency is re-imposed annually until 1990).

Chief Jonathan is toppled in a Lesotho coup. The ANC leaves Lesotho.

The US passes the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act which imposes fiscal and other sanctions on South Africa.

Special state of emergency media regulations in December impose a news blackout, prohibiting the reporting of unrest incidents or actions of the security forces.

Legislation - the pass laws, the Mixed Marriages Act and the Prohibition of Political Interference Act - is repealed.

1987 In the Natal 'Midlands War', increased inter-organisational conflict and violence break out between Inkatha and UDF youth organisations (resulting in large-scale deaths and social upheaval from 1987 to 1990). Inkatha-aligned vigilante gangs, such as the AmaSinyora in KwaMashu, engage in political violence.

In the general elections in May, the Conservative Party replaces the Progressive Federal Party as the official opposition in Parliament.

The Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA) is formed in September.

The ANC launches Operation Vula after its Arusha conference in Zambia in December. The objectives of Operation Vula are to build strong underground structures with the ultimate goal of bringing ANC leaders into the country.

1988 SADF forces are forced by a joint Angolan-Cuban force to retreat at Cuito Cuanavale in Southern Angola in early 1988.

Four unarmed ANC members are shot dead in June by a Vlakplaas hit squad and members of the Piet Retief security branch.

Massive strike in protest against the Labour Relations Amendment Act in June.

The ANC publishes its constitutional guidelines in July.

In what becomes known as the Trust Feed killings, eleven people are killed by SAP members and special constables who storm and fire on an all-night prayer vigil near New Hanover on 3 December. Senior Inkatha leaders are part of the planning.

South Africa signs the New York accord in December, readopts UN Resolution 435 and agrees to the withdrawal of troops from Angola and Namibia.

1989 Detainee hunger strikes begin in January when long-term state of emergency detainees across the country, some of whom have spent over three years in detention without trial, embark on hunger strikes. Gradually, many are released.

The Democratic Party is launched in April as an amalgamation of three white political parties to the left of the NP.

The ANC, UDF and COSATU adopt the Harare Declaration in July, outlining the conditions for negotiations. The Declaration is later ratified by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations.

The first known meeting between President PW Botha and Nelson Mandela takes place in July. (This follows several secret meetings between representatives of the government and the ANC from 1985.)

The last general election for the Tricameral Parliament takes place in September, marked by nationwide protest action and repression. On election night alone, over twenty people die in Western Cape townships.

A massive 'Peace March', protesting against police repression, is permitted to go ahead in Cape Town on 13 September.

FW de Klerk becomes State President on 20 September after the resignation of PW Botha in August and introduces a series of reforms over the following years. The National Security Management System is replaced by the National Co-ordinating Mechanism (NCM). The State Security Council is stripped of many powers. Many of its sub-structures are dismantled, excluding STRATCOM.

SWAPO wins national elections in Namibia in November and Namibia becomes independent in March the following year.

The start of the transition period:

1990 The Berlin Wall falls in February, the symbolic end of the 'communist threat' and used by FW de Klerk as a justification for a 'liberalisation' of strategy.

FW de Klerk announces the unbanning of liberation movements and other organisations, the release of political prisoners, the lifting of restrictions on thirty-three organisations, and a moratorium on judicial executions on 2 February.

Nelson Mandela is released on 11 February.

Violence breaks out outside Pietermaritzburg between 25-31 March in what becomes known as the 'Seven Day War', resulting in the loss of over two hundred lives, and the flight of up to twenty thousand people from the area.

Exiled ANC leaders arrive in the country in April for talks with the government. On 5 April, President De Klerk and ANC Deputy President Nelson Mandela meet in Cape Town. Negotiations begin in May, resulting in the Groote Schuur Minute which allows for the release of political prisoners, the return of exiles and the amendment of security legislation.

The Indemnity Act is introduced in May, providing for the granting of temporary or permanent indemnity against prosecutions for exiles returning to South Africa.

The countrywide state of emergency is lifted in June. A partial emergency is declared in KwaZulu-Natal and lifted on 18 October 1990.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) is launched as a political party in July.

Violence in the Reef begins in July, following local opposition to an IFP recruitment drive in Transvaal hostels which culminates in a rally in Sebokeng on 22 July. After the rally at least twenty-seven people are killed, followed by counter-attacks. (This spiral of violence continues, increasing in 1992).

The first train attack takes place at Inhlanzane Station in July. This marks the start of a series of attacks on train commuters in the Witwatersrand. Between 1990 and 1993, at least 572 people die in more than 600 incidents of train violence.

The Pretoria Minute is signed by the ANC and the government in August. The ANC suspends the armed struggle.

Violence on the Reef and in the Natal Midlands escalates in August.

A mass march against the local town council in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on 25 October, ends in violence with at least eight deaths. (The march follows several months of conflict between the local ANC-aligned structures and town councillors).

The Harms Commission Report rejects confessions made by Dirk Coetzee, and other security police officers in November. It absolves the security police at Vlakplaas from responsibility for hit squad activities but finds the CCB broadly culpable of politically motivated violence.

Sixteen people are killed at Bruntville, Natal in November in an attack led by hostel dwellers. Approximately 1 500 people are forced to flee their homes.

Mandela pledges that MK members will help form and train self-defence units (SDUs) to protect communities from attack by security forces or vigilantes. SDUs are established in many townships across the country.

Compulsory military service (conscription) is ended and the SADF is withdrawn from townships.

Vigilante activities by the Three Million Gang (reported as active from 1989 to 1992 in the Orange Free State) target UDF and ANC activists, student organisations and SDUs for attack. The SDUs violently oppose the group.

The killing of political leaders and activists in Natal escalates.

1991 The UDF National General Council decides in March to disband the organisation later that year.

In the Alexandra night vigil killings on 26 March 1991, fifteen people are shot dead and at least eighteen are injured in an attack on a funeral vigil for an ANC member who died in fighting in Alexandra which raged for three days.

Political prisoners engage in hunger strikes in April and May to protest the slow pace of releases.

The ANC National Executive Committee writes an open letter as an ultimatum to the State President in April concerning the pattern of political violence and making a number of demands. The ANC subsequently suspends constitutional talks with the government in May.

A group of about eight hundred alleged IFP supporters attack the squatter settlement of Swanieville on the East Rand on 12 May. Twenty-nine people are killed and over thirty injured.

In the 'Battle of the Forest' in June, twenty-three people are killed in fighting between IFP and ANC supporters in the Richmond townships of Ndaleni and Magoda, Natal.

The 'Inkathagate' scandal breaks in July and government funding of, inter alia, Inkatha and its union UWUSA for anti-ANC activities is revealed. De Klerk establishes the Kahn Committee to examine secret projects.

Nelson Mandela is elected president of the ANC in July and Oliver Tambo elected chairperson.

The National Peace Accord is signed on 14 September by the government, the ANC, the IFP and twenty-four other organisations. The government, the ANC and Inkatha reach an agreement, which opens the door to negotiations and leads to the establishment of the Goldstone Commission.

The Goldstone Commission is established in October to investigate public violence and intimidation.

The government and eighteen other parties (excluding the CP and the PAC), making up the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA ), sign a Declaration of Intent in December.

The Esikhaweni IFP hit squad is active in areas of Zululand, killing UDF/ANC and union supporters and leaders until 1993.

From 1991, Khayelitsha and other Cape Town townships see the emergence of anonymous ('balaclava') attacks on people aligned with the ANC.

Intense competition between taxi operators for ranking facilities and routes escalates from 1991 and acquires a political character in certain areas (over 200 lives are lost in 1992 alone).

1992 A whites-only referendum on 17 March gives the government firm support for negotiations - a 68.6% vote for the continuation of the negotiations process.

In the Boipatong killings on 17 June, two hundred IFP supporters from KwaMadala hostel attack residents of Slovo Park squatter camp, killing over forty-five people. The ANC withdraws from CODESA in protest against the killing and launches a mass action campaign.

The ANC calls a strike on 3-4 August, estimated to have cost business R250 million.

The Skweyiya Commission of Enquiry, an internal ANC commission, reveals details in August of human rights violations in ANC detention camps. Nelson Mandela accepts collective responsibility for the leadership of the ANC.

In the Bisho killings on 7 September, Ciskei Defence Force troops open fire on ANC protesters demanding free political activity in Ciskei at Bisho. Twenty-nine protesters and one soldier are killed and about 200 are wounded. (This follows months of violent conflicts between homeland government supporters and ANC supporters).

On the Natal South Coast, twelve IFP supporters are killed at Bomela in September and twenty at Folweni in October.

The state and the ANC sign the Record of Understanding in September.

A Goldstone Commission raid in November uncovers a campaign waged by the Directorate of Covert Collection (DCC) to discredit the ANC. General Pierre Steyn is appointed to investigate Military Intelligence structures and functions.

Project Echo and Operation Thunderstorm, two extensive SADF projects aimed at undermining the ANC, are exposed.

1993 The government announces in March that it has dismantled six nuclear bombs built secretly before 1989.

Six children are killed by ANC supporters on 2 March and ten are killed by IFP supporters on 5 March in two separate bus ambushes Table Mountain, Natal.

Chris Hani is assassinated in April. Senior Communist Party member, Clive Derby-Lewis, and Polish immigrant, Janusz Waluz, are later convicted. Over seventy people die across the country in violence sparked by his murder.

27 April 1994 is confirmed as the election date. Inkatha and the CP walk out of the talks, later joined by Ciskei and Bophuthatswana. (They later set up the Freedom Alliance). The July announcement of the election date leads to an immediate escalation in deaths related to political violence.

The Afrikaner Volksfront is launched in May by 21 right-wing groups who demand self-determination in a federal state.

Members of the Afrikaner Volksfront and the AWB invade the negotiations venue, the World Trade Centre, in June and occupy the building causing damages estimated at R700 000.

A second ANC-appointed enquiry, the Motsuenyane Commission, reports in August on human rights abuses in ANC detention camps. Conclusions reached (similar to those of the first enquiry) are accepted by the ANC. Alleged perpetrators are named.

The IFP and KwaZulu Legislative Assembly embark on a Self-Protection Unit training project. Training of SPUs begins at Mlaba Camp in September with the assistance of Vlakplaas commander De Kock with weapons delivered by IFP member Philip Powell. (By April 1994, over 5 000 Inkatha supporters have received training).

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk in October.

The ANC and the government propose power sharing and a five-year interim government of national unity after elections.

Three years of negotiations end with agreement on constitutional issues in November. Agreements are reached on a non-racial, multi-party democracy, a bill of rights, a system of proportional representation and other matters.

The interim Constitution is finalised and a Transitional Executive Council is installed, with representatives from all parties at the negotiations. The ANC and the government continue talks with the Freedom Alliance in an attempt to resolve issues in time to bring the Alliance into the elections.

1994 One person is killed and several injured in an APLA attack on the Crazy Beat disco in Newcastle, Natal on 14 February.

The Fourth Interim Report of the Goldstone Commission in March concludes that there is prima facie evidence of a hit squad in the KwaZulu Police.

At least fifty-five people die and hundreds are injured when IFP members march to the centre of Johannesburg on 28 March. IFP marchers are shot at by ANC members from the ANC Shell House head office, killing thirteen.

Less than a week before the election in April the IFP calls on its supporters to vote.

South Africa's first democratic election takes place on 27 April. The ANC wins with 62.6% of the vote, implying 252 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly. A Government of National Unity is constituted.

Former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock and two others are arrested in Pretoria in May.

Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as President of South Africa on 10 May.