The End of Apartheid

The apartheid system, fixed in law from 1948, sorted the people of South Africa into racial registers, restricting movement, residence and work. By the late 1980s it is ever harder to hold: resistance within the country, international sanctions and economic dead-end push the government to negotiate. In 1990 Nelson Mandela walks out of prison; the principal apartheid laws are repealed; and in 1994 elections are held in which all citizens vote for the first time. Mandela becomes president, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission begins its work.