The end of apartheid
Mandela walks out of prison and four years later is elected president.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 4.2 years
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
South Africa's system of legislated racial separation, in place since 1948 and resisted throughout, is dismantled between 1990 and 1994 under sustained internal resistance, international sanctions and negotiation. Mandela is released in February 1990 after 27 years and elected in the first universal-franchise election in April 1994. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission that follows becomes an internationally studied model for confronting state crimes.