1991 in South Africa

Events

January

• 9 – Black children are admitted to schools previously reserved for whites only.
• 12 – 45 mourners are killed during an attack on a funeral vigil for an African National Congress member.
• 13 – 45 football fans die in the Orkney Stadium Disaster in the Oppenheimer Stadium in Orkney.
• 29 – F. W. de Klerk, State President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, deputy-president of the African National Congress, and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, meet for peace talks.

February

• 1 – At the signing of a national peace accord F. W. de Klerk, State President of South Africa, promises to end all apartheid legislation and to create a new multi-racial constitution.

March

• 12 – The government tables a white paper to end racial discrimination in landownership and occupation.
• 24 – Twelve people, including a police officer and two children, are killed when police opens fire on a crowd of African National Congress supporters when they attack the police in Daveyton, Gauteng.

April

• 30 – A coup d'état is executed in Lesotho.

May

• 14 – Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, dubbed the "Mugger of the Nation", is found guilty and sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for her involvement in the death of 14-year old Stompie Moeketsi. The sentence will never be carried out.

June

• 28 – The Population Registration Act, in terms of which South Africans were classified into racial groups, is repealed.
• 30 – The laws enforcing geographical segregation, including the Group Areas Act, the Native Land Act, the Native Trust and Land Act and the Asiatic Land Tenure Act, are repealed.

July

• 2–6 – The 48th National Conference of the African National Congress takes place in Durban, the first to be held inside South Africa since 1959.
• 9 – The suspension of South Africa from the International Olympic Committee is lifted.

August

• 4 – The Oceanos, a Greek owned cruise ship, sinks off Coffee Bay, Eastern Cape.
• 9 – Right-wingers of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging clash with the police in the Battle of Ventersdorp.

September

• 4 – F. W. de Klerk, State President of South Africa, announces a new constitution that will provide suffrage for black people.

October

• 2 – Pik Botha, Minister of Foreign Affairs, visits Beijing to strengthen South Africa's relations with China.

Unknown date

• The Phinda Resource Reserve is formed.
• The great white shark is given full protection under South African law

Deaths

• 25 February – Chief Mhlabunzima Maphumulo is shot dead by an alleged hit-squad outside his home in Pietermaritzburg.

Railways

Locomotives

• Spoornet places three prototype Class 14E dual voltage electric mainline locomotives in stock service, following intensive testing. They are the first dual voltage 3 kV DC and 25 kV AC locomotives to see service in South Africa.^[1][2]:134

Sports

Athletics

• 20 July – Joseph Skosana wins his first national title in the men's marathon, clocking 2:10:29 in Durban.

References