On 3 September 1979, Dr. Frederik van Zyl Slabbert was elected as the leader of the opposition party, the Progressive Federal Party (PFP). He took over from Colin Wells Eglin, who was elected the party's National Chairman. Eglin replaced van Zyl Slabbert when he resigned in 1986. Born in Pretoria to an Afrikaner family, van Zyl Slabbert grew up in Pietersburg (now known as Polokwane). Van Zyl Slabbert matriculated from the Pietersburg Afrikaans High School in 1958. His political career blossomed during his academic studies at the University of Stellenbosch, leading him to reject Apartheid and to stand for a seat on Stellenbosch University's Students' Representative Council (SRC). Unfortunately he lost the election as he was considered to be too liberal. Van Zyl Slabbert served as the leader of the PFP for 12 years. He died on 14 May 2010 at his home in Johannesburg after battling with a liver-related complication.

President F W de Klerk announces that South Africa's first non-racial democratic elections will be held from 26-28 April 1994.  

Location: back to this day in history search archive On 22 July 1994, the government of Sir Dawda Jawara was overthrown in a military coup in Gambia. While Jawara's thirty year rule was characterised by mostly good governance, he failed to address the endemic corruption in the Gabonese army and security sectors. Surrounded by Senegal, Jawara enjoyed their support for most of his rule to the extent that they suppressed an attempted military coup in 1981. However during the 1994 coup, Senegal refused to intervene, as Gambia refused to accept a monetary and economic union with Senegal in 1989. A military council headed by four lieutenants, Jammeh, Hydara, Sabaly and Signateh replaced Jawara's rule.. Following the coup, Jawara fled to a visiting American warship, the USS La Moure County that was paying a courtesy call to the country when the coup took place. Jammeh, one of the leaders of the coup who deposed Jawara, eventually became President of Gambia. In contrast to Jawara's rule, Jammeh's has been marked by great instability and hostility to the West.

The former South Africa Minister of Education, Dr. Sibusiso Bengu warned the University of Stellenbosch that it could not continue to be an exclusively Afrikaans-speaking University within a new democratic South Africa. This followed the University's refusal to comply with the new regulations for integrated higher education, which included an inclusive medium of instruction. Since its establishment in 1866, Stellenbosch University had maintained a white Afrikaner student body through the use of the Afrikaans language as the medium of instruction. Although, some English speaking White South Africans attended, they were sufficiently bilingual to cope with being taught in Afrikaans. This situation emerged out of the National Party government's policy of separate segregated education. Higher Education was thus implemented inequitably through separate administrative divisions to serve different race groups. Education institutions were exclusive to particular race groups. The White Institutions were further divided into those which, used as their main medium of communication and instruction, either Afrikaans (which was the home language of most people in government) or English. Language exclusivity helped to prevent institutions designated for the use of one race group from enrolling or allowing students of other races to mix with theirs.

A 13 year old Welsh schoolgirl, Lucille Sticker,  from Waterhall Secondary School in Cardiff  wrote a goodwill message and hoped that her letter would be passed on to any African girl in Cape Town. The letter was addressed to the “Head girl, any non-European Secondary School, Cape Town South Africa”. It was unfortunately delivered to the Cape Department of Education.

The 68 year-old Ross was born in the Cape, but moved to Transvaal where he spent the greater part of his life. During the Second World War Ross served as an Officer in the Third Transvaal Scottish Regiment. After the war he devoted himself to the task of providing housing for White and non-White ex-servicemen. He was educated at King Edward School. The United Party (UP) was established after the Great Depression of 1929 - 1939. It came into being as a fusion between Jan Smut’s South African Party (SAP) and J.B.M. Hertzog’s National Party (NP) in 1934. Among politicians who worked as an MP for UP was Sir. De Viliers Graaff.

The Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser was the first newspaper to be published in Africa. It was started by two slave dealers, Alexander Walker and John Robertson. In its early stages, the newspaper was simply used by the government as a mouth-piece. It was only in 1829, after the owners had been involved in a very a long struggle with the government, and the Colony granted freedom of the press, that the newspaper became free from government censorship. This led to a significant growth in the newspaper industry as more newspapers emerged. The newspaper was published in both English and Dutch, and changed its name to Dutch Kaapsche Courant in 1803. This could have been influenced by the change in the political scene in the colony at the time. The Dutch had just taken the Colony from the British in 1802. The British reoccupied the Colony in 1806. The Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser is regarded as the paper that paved the way for the newspapers that Africa boasts today.  

Nigeria's Federal Troops launched a major offensive against multiple targets in Biafra on the 19th of August 1968. Despite claims that scores of people were killed, the leader of the Nigerian military government, General Yakubu Gowon said that his troops were 'behaving correctly'. Biafra had declared itself independent from Nigeria on 30 May 1967 which sparked tensions. The root of the conflict was economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of the country. Like many other African countries, Nigeria was an artificial construct initiated by the British who ignored religious, linguistic, and ethnic differences in the region. The country was eight years into its independence which it gained from Britain in 1960. At the time of the civil war the official population of Nigeria was 60 million consisting of nearly 300 different ethnic and cultural groups.

On 17 September 1995, the Roman Catholic’s Pope John Paul II celebrated a papal mass in South Africa as he began his six day tour of Africa. His visit to the country came seven years after the cleric angered the apartheid government when he refused to kiss the ground in 1988 when the papal plane he was travelling in was forced to land in the country because of bad weather conditions. During his visit in 1995, the Pope said: "Today my journey brings me to a new South Africa, a 'rainbow nation,' indicating the diversity of races, ethnic groups, languages and culture which characterize it." Four orphans representing different South African ethnic groups presented the Pope with a basket of earth as he stepped off the papal plane. The State President Nelson Mandela said: "To say this visit is long overdue is to pay tribute to your own abhorrence of the system of apartheid," The main objective of his visit to the African continent was to present a papal document outlining the Roman Catholic Church's future on the continent.