ON THIS DAY IN SA HISTORY

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12

◆ 1862 Sir Thomas Cullinan, digger and founder of the Premier diamond company, is born.

◆ 1880 Ermelo is founded.

◆ 1946 South African Indian Congress conference opposes proposed legislation.

◆ 1951 Kwame Nkrumah is released from jail. ◆ 1965 A proclamation applies a section of the Group Areas Act to all public places of recreation, including sporting events, theatres and concerts so that such places in “white areas” could not be frequented by “nonwhites” and vice versa.

◆ 1979 The State Security Council approves guidelines for the conducting of military operations against liberation movements in foreign countries.

◆ 1980 Quail Commission report released.

◆ 1982 Thami Mazwai, former journalist and anti-apartheid activist, is jailed for two years.

◆ 1983 Seventy-six people injured in an explosion at the offices of the Administration Board of the Free State in Bloemfontein.

◆ 1989 Vlakplaas operatives kill three South African students in Swaziland.

◆ 1990 ANC leader Nelson Mandela meets the world’s press at the official residence of the Archbishop of Cape Town and says he “understands white fears of domination” and that “the ANC is concerned to address the problem and to find a solution which will suit both blacks and whites in this country”.

◆ 1991 Following a 12-hour meeting in Cape Town between President FW de Klerk and ANC Deputy-President Nelson Mandela, they announce that they have resolved differences over the return of exiles and the release of political prisoners, while the ANC assents to end the recruitment and training of cadres for its armed branch, Umkhonto we Sizwe.

◆ 1992 Community and sports leader Hassan Howa dies. The government posthumously bestowed a presidential medal on him in 1998.

◆ 1993 South African government and the ANC agree to a plan which will lead to black majority rule by 1999.

◆ 1999 James Aubrey Polley, 61, flamboyant former minister of the Methodist Church and anti-apartheid activist, dies. He was detained several times, among other things, because he protected Breyten Breytenbach.

◆ 2006 At an international summit in South Africa, leaders pledge to push for a new global trade deal that will help poor countries. DISCIPLINARY ACTION