On this day in 1990, F. W. de Klerk, then President of South Africa, announced the lifting of the 30-year ban on the African National Congress (ANC), marking a historic turning point that would lead to the ending of apartheid.
The decision paved the way for the release of Nelson Mandela, who had spent 27 years in prison for his role in the struggle against the apartheid regime.
A ban that defined an era
The ANC was banned in 1960 following the Sharpeville massacre, as South Africa’s white minority government intensified its crackdown on opposition to apartheid. For decades, the organisation operated underground or in exile, while its leaders were imprisoned, silenced or forced to flee the country.
The ban symbolised the suppression of political freedom and the institutionalised racial segregation that governed every aspect of life in South Africa.
A decisive political shift
De Klerk’s announcement in February 1990 signalled a dramatic shift in government policy. Alongside the unbanning of the ANC, restrictions on other political organisations were lifted, and talks began on dismantling apartheid’s legal framework.
Within days, Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison, emerging as a global symbol of reconciliation rather than revenge.
The beginning of democratic transformation
The events of 1990 set South Africa on a path toward inclusive democracy. Negotiations between the apartheid government and liberation movements eventually led to the country’s first multiracial elections in 1994, which brought Mandela to power as South Africa’s first Black president.
The moment is widely regarded as the beginning of the end of apartheid, a system that had drawn international condemnation for decades.
A moment that reshaped history
More than three decades later, the lifting of the ANC ban remains one of the most significant political decisions of the 20th century, demonstrating how negotiated change- rather than civil war- can dismantle even the most entrenched systems of injustice.
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