Apartheid Formally Ends
South Africa's parliament repealed the last apartheid laws
June 17, 1991
The Fall of a System Built on Race
Apartheid — a system of rigid racial segregation enforced by the white minority government in South Africa — officially came to an end on April 27, 1994, when the country held its first fully democratic elections. For decades, Black South Africans had been denied the right to vote, forced to live in designated areas, and subjected to brutal repression if they resisted. The apartheid system had been condemned worldwide, and international sanctions had steadily isolated South Africa economically. After years of mounting pressure from inside and outside the country, President F.W. de Klerk released Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990 and began dismantling the apartheid laws.
The Long Walk to Freedom
The transition from apartheid to democracy was tense and uncertain. Many feared that decades of oppression and injustice would explode into civil war. Negotiations between the African National Congress and the white government were painstaking, and violence threatened to derail the process multiple times. The assassination of ANC leader Chris Hani in 1993 nearly pushed the country over the edge. But leaders on both sides, especially Mandela, called for restraint and kept the process on track. The patience and moral authority Mandela showed during this period was widely credited with holding South Africa together.
A New Nation Votes
When election day finally arrived, millions of Black South Africans voted for the very first time. Lines stretched for miles, with people waiting patiently for hours in the sun. The ANC won the election in a landslide, and Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first democratically elected president. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up after the election, gave victims a chance to tell their stories and offered amnesty to perpetrators who came forward and told the truth. South Africa's peaceful transition became a model for the world, proof that even the most entrenched systems of injustice could be dismantled without all-out war.