|
 1912: Founding of South African Native National Congress, precursor to the ANC.
1923: Name changed to African National Congress.
1955: The Congress Alliance -- of the ANC and Indian, mixed-race and white organizations
-- holds the Congress of the People in Soweto. Congress adopts the Freedom Charter calling for a nonracial democracy and a socialist-based economy.
1956: Nelson Mandela and 155 other South Africans of all races who had supported the Freedom Charter charged with treason. All acquitted after a four-year trial.
1959: Robert Sobukwe leads breakaway faction from the ANC, forming Pan Africanist Congress, now a minor political player in South Africa.
1960: ANC banned.
1961: Founding of ANC's guerrilla wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, or Spear of the Nation.
1964: Mandela found guilty of sabotage at Rivonia Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1990: ANC and other groups unbanned; Mandela released.
1991: Mandela elected president of ANC. The government, ANC and 17 other political groups begin formal negotiations on a new constitution.
[to top of second column] |
 1993: Draft constitution adopted.
1994: ANC wins first all-race elections; Mandela becomes president; ANC's armed wing absorbed into national defense forces.
1999: Thabo Mbeki succeeds Mandela as the country's president.
2007: ANC elects Jacob Zuma as party president over Mbeki, putting Zuma in line to run for the presidency.
2009: ANC sweeps parliamentary elections and Zuma becomes president.
2011: ANC fires Youth League leader Julius Malema and suspends him from the party for five years.
2012: ANC marks its 100th anniversary, holds party convention to pick its next leader.
[Associated
Press]
Copyright 2012 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
