1993 in South Africa

Events

March

• 24 – President F.W. de Klerk informs Parliament that South Africa constructed six nuclear fission devices that had been dismantled by the end of 1989.

April

• 8 – South Africa and India sign a memorandum of understanding on bilateral air services.
• 10 – Chris Hani, the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) is assassinated by Polish immigrant Janusz Waluś.^[1]

May

• 1 – Members of the Azanian People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress attack civilians at the Highgate Hotel in East London, killing five people.^[1]
• 4 – Nordic development ministers, at their annual meeting in Sweden, decide to continue supporting to the African National Congress.
• 5 – Nelson Mandela addresses a joint sitting of two houses of the United Kingdom Parliament.
• 5 – Members of the Azanian People's Liberation Army kill four police officers at Dobsonville, Soweto.
• An Indian diplomatic Cultural Centre is opened in Johannesburg

June

• 4 – Eleven people are killed in clashes between African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party members in Estcourt.
• 4 – South Africa signs the Convention on Biological Diversity.

July

• 25 – Members of the Azanian People's Liberation Army, in what has been described as a terrorist attack,^[2] open fire on a congregation inside St James Church in Kenilworth, Cape Town, killing eleven and injuring fifty.^[1]

August

• 19 – An RPG is fired at the East London petrol depot, but does not explode and results in a shoot out with the SAP.
• 23 – The Motsuenyane Commission finds the African National Congress guilty of abuse in some camps in exile, thereby confirming the findings of the Skweyiya Commission.

September

• 23 – The United States Senate approves legislation lifting economic sanctions against South Africa.

October

• Five school children are killed in the Mthatha Massacre when the South African Defence Force opens fire on the house of a member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).^[1]

November

• 18 – Twenty-one political parties approve a new interim Constitution of South Africa.
• 22 – India re-establishes full diplomatic relations with South Africa.
• A South African diplomatic mission is opened in New Delhi, India

December

• 30 – Six members of the Azanian People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, open fire on patrons of the Heidelberg Tavern in Observatory, Cape Town, killing four people (Jose Cerqueira, Lindy-Anne Fourie, Bernadette Langford, and Rolande Palm) and injuring several others.^[1]
• 10 – President F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• The Indian Cultural Centre in Johannesburg is upgraded to a Consulate-General.
• Trade sanctions which were imposed in 1986 are lifted.

Deaths

• 20 March – Gerard Sekoto, artist, who went into exile in 1947, dies in Paris, France at the age of 80.
• 24 April – Oliver Tambo dies from a stroke.

Railways

Locomotives

• Spoornet begins to modify Class 6E1, Series 7, Series 8 and Series 9 locomotives to improve their braking and traction reliability on the Natal mainline and reclassify them to Class 17E.^{[3]:49–51, 57}

• Amcoal, a subsidiary of Anglo American, places three Class E38 electric locomotives in service at its Kromdraai Colliery near Witbank.^[3]:63

Sports

Athletics

• 20 March – Josia Thugwane wins his first national title in the men's marathon, clocking 2:14:25 in Cape Town.

References

See also

List of terrorist incidents, 1993