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South African General Election, 1994
General elections were held in South Africa between 26 and 29 April 1994. The elections were the first in which citizens of all races were allowed to take part, and were therefore also the first held with universal suffrage. The election was conducted under the direction of the Independent Electoral Commission (South Africa), Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), and marked the culmination of the four-year process that Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa, ended apartheid. Millions queued in lines over a four-day voting period. Altogether, 19,726,579 votes were counted, and 193,081 were rejected as invalid. As widely expected, the African National Congress (ANC), whose slate incorporated the labour confederation Congress of South African Trade Unions, COSATU and the South African Communist Party (SACP), won a sweeping victory, taking 62 percent of the vote, just short of the two-thirds majority required to unilaterally amend the Interim Constitution of South Africa, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Assembly Of South Africa
The National Assembly is the directly elected house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation system where half of the members are elected proportionally from nine provincial lists and the remaining half from national lists so as to restore proportionality. The National Assembly is presided over by a Speaker, assisted by a Deputy Speaker. The current speaker as of 14 June 2024 is Thoko Didiza ( ANC). The Deputy Speaker is Annelie Lotriet ( DA) since 14 June 2024. The National Assembly chamber was destroyed in a fire in January 2022. National Assembly sittings are now held in the old Good Hope Chamber, which is within the precincts of parliament. Allocation The National Assembly seats are allocated using a proportional representation system with closed lists. Seats are first allocated according to the (integer part of the) Dro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interim Constitution Of South Africa
The Interim Constitution was the fundamental law of South Africa from during the first non-racial general election on 27 April 1994 until it was superseded by the final constitution on 4 February 1997. As a transitional constitution it required the newly elected Parliament to also serve as a constituent assembly to adopt a final constitution. It made provision for a major restructuring of government as a consequence of the abolition of apartheid. It also introduced an entrenched bill of rights against which legislation and government action could be tested, and created the Constitutional Court with broad powers of judicial review. History An integral part of the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa was the creation of a new, non-discriminatory constitution for the country. One of the major disputed issues was the process by which such a constitution would be adopted. The African National Congress (ANC) insisted that it should be drawn up by a democratically elected ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian South Africans
Indian South Africans are South Africans who descend from indentured labourers and free migrants who arrived from British Raj, British India during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The majority live in and around the city of Durban, making it one of the largest ethnically Indian-populated cities outside of India. As a consequence of the policies of apartheid, ''Indian'' (synonymous with ''Asian)'' is regarded as a Race (human categorization), race group in South Africa. Racial identity During the colonial era, Indians were accorded the same subordinate status in South African society as Blacks were by the White South Africans, white minority, which held the vast majority of political power. During the period of apartheid from 1948 to 1994, Indian South Africans were legally classified as being a separate racial group. During the most intense period of segregation and apartheid, "Indian", "Coloured" and "Cape Malays, Malay" group identities controlled numerous aspects of dail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coloureds
Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South Africa began in the 17th century in the Dutch Cape Colony where the Dutch men mixed with Khoi Khoi women, Bantu women and Asian female slaves, producing mixed race children. Eventually, interracial mixing occurred throughout South Africa and the rest of Southern Africa with various other European nationals (such as the Portuguese, British, Germans, Irish etc.) who mixed with other African tribes which contributed to the growing number of mixed-race people, who would later be officially classified as Coloured by the apartheid government. ''Coloured'' was a legally defined racial classification during apartheid referring to anyone not white or of the black Bantu tribes, which effectively largely meant people of colour. The majority of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black South Africans
Bantu speaking people are the majority ethno-racial group in South Africa. They are descendants of Southern Bantu-speaking peoples who settled in South Africa during the Bantu expansion. They are referred to in various census as ''blacks'', or ''Native Africans''. History Early history Archaeological evidence suggests that ''Homo sapiens'' inhabited the region for over 100,000 years, with sedentary agriculture occurring since at least 100 CE. Based on prehistorical archaeological evidence of pastoralism and farming in southern Africa, the settlements in sites located in the southernmost region of modern Mozambique established around are some of the oldest and most proximate pieces of archaeological evidence related to the South African Bantu-speaking peoples. Ancient settlements remains found thus far similarly based on pastoralism and farming within South Africa were dated . Around 1220, the Kingdom of Mapungubwe formed in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, with rainmaking cruci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Population Registration Act, 1950
The Population Registration Act of 1950 required that each inhabitant of South Africa be classified and registered in accordance with their racial characteristics as part of the system of apartheid. Social rights, political rights, educational opportunities, and economic status were largely determined by the group to which an individual belonged. There were three basic racial classifications under the law: Black, White and Coloured (mixed). Indians (that is, South Asians from the former British India, and their descendants) were later added as a separate classification as they were seen as having "no historical right to the country". An ''Office for Race Classification'' was set up to overview the classification process. Classification into groups was carried out using criteria such as outer appearance, general acceptance and social standing. For example, it defined a "white person" as one who "in appearance is obviously a white person who is generally not accepted as a colou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White South Africans
White South Africans are South Africans of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, they are generally divided into the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch East India Company's original colonists, known as Afrikaners, and the Anglophone descendants of predominantly British colonists of South Africa. White South Africans are by far the largest population of White Africans. ''White'' was a legally defined racial classification during apartheid. White settlement in South Africa began with Dutch colonisation in 1652, followed by British colonisation in the 19th century, which led to tensions and further expansion inland by Boer settlers. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, waves of immigrants from Europe and continued to grow the white population, which peaked in the mid-1990s. Under apartheid, strict racial classifications enforced a legal and economic order that privileged the white minority. Post-apartheid reforms such as Black Economic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Racial Segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, such as schools and hospitals by people of different races. Specifically, it may be applied to activities such as eating in restaurants, drinking from water fountains, using public toilets, attending schools, going to movie theaters, riding buses, renting or purchasing homes, renting hotel rooms, going to supermarkets, or attending places of worship. In addition, segregation often allows close contact between members of different racial or ethnic groups in social hierarchy, hierarchical situations, such as allowing a person of one race to work as a servant for a member of another race. Racial segregation has generally been outlawed worldwide. Segregation is defined by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance as "the act by w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on ''baasskap'' ( 'boss-ship' or 'boss-hood'), which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority White South Africans, white population. Under this minoritarianism, minoritarian system, white citizens held the highest status, followed by Indian South Africans, Indians, Coloureds and Ethnic groups in South Africa#Black South Africans, black Africans, in that order. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly Inequality in post-apartheid South Africa, inequality. Broadly speaking, apartheid was delineated into ''petty apartheid'', which entailed the segregation of public facilities and social ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freedom Day (South Africa)
Freedom Day is a public holiday in South Africa celebrated on 27 April. It commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994 and the day on which the new constitution was introduced. The elections were the first national elections where everyone of voting age of over 18 from any race group, was allowed to vote. It is one of the seventeen public holidays determined by the Public Holidays Act (No. 36 of 1994). On the first commemoration of the holiday, President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela addressed Parliament: ''As a new dawn ushered in this day, the 27th of April 1994, few of us could suppress the welling of emotion, as we were reminded of the terrible past from which we come as a nation; the great possibilities that we now have; and the bright future that beckons us. And so we assemble here today, and in other parts of the country, to mark a historic day in the life of our nation. Wherever South Africans are across the globe, our hearts beat as one, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Holidays In South Africa
A list of current public holidays in South Africa: :''In gold, the National Day'' The Public Holidays Act (Act No 36 of 1994) states that whenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following it will be a public holiday. Once-off holidays Since 1994 election days have been declared ad hoc public holidays: * National and provincial government elections – 2 June 1999 * National and provincial government elections – 14 April 2004 * Local government elections – 1 March 2006 * National and provincial government elections – 22 April 2009 * Local government elections – 18 May 2011 * National and provincial government elections – 7 May 2014 * Local government elections – 3 August 2016 * National and provincial government elections – 8 May 2019 * Local government elections – 1 November 2021 31 December 1999 and 2 January 2000 were declared public holidays to accommodate the Y2K changeover, and 3 January 2000 was automatically a public holiday because t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of South Africa
The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the South African National Defence Force. Between 1961 and 1994, the office of head of state was the state presidency. The president is elected by the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, and is usually the leader of the largest party, which has been the African National Congress since the first multiracial election was held on 27 April 1994. The Constitution limits the president's time in office to two five-year terms. The first president to be elected under the new constitution was Nelson Mandela. The incumbent is Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected by the National Assembly on 15 February 2018 following the resignation of Jacob Zuma. Under the interim constitution (valid from 1994–96), there was a Government of National Unity, in which a member of Parliament ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
