| Week
starting Saturday 14 May |
|
| Date |
Year |
Event |
|
| 14 |
1951 |
After a vote dominated by the Afrikaner Nationalist
majority in the South African Parliament people of Colour (i.e. mixed race)
will be removed from the electoral register. The Minister of the Interior,
Dr Theophilus Donges, has said it is necessary to avoid the collapse of
white civilisation in the whole of Africa. |
| 14 |
1991 |
Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela is sentenced to six
years for her 'complicity' in the kidnapping and beating of four youths,
one of whom was later found dead. The actual crime was committed by her
'thuggish' bodyguards, the 'Mandela United Football Club. Madikizela-Mandela
is released on bail pending an appeal. |
|
|
For more on 14 May |
|
| 15 |
1902 |
Boer War: Peace
Vereeniging conference begins. The 60 Boer representative elect General CF
Beyers as chairman. |
| 15 |
1948 |
Start of the first Arab-Israeli War. |
|
|
For more on 15 May |
|
| 16 |
1941 |
World War II: North Africa
Believing that yesterdays advance by British forces into Sollum and Fort
Capuzzo was the start of an attack on Torbruk, General Rommel attacks and
forces the British back to Halfaya Pass. |
| 16 |
1996 |
A team of American palaeontologists announce the
discovery of a 1.5 million year old skull of the shark-toothed reptile Carcharodontosaurus
saharicus in the Sahara desert, Morocco. |
|
|
For more on 16 May |
|
| 17 |
1941 |
World War II: North Africa
Rommel is instructed by Berlin to leave Torbruk to the Italians and
concentrate his Deutsches Afrika Korps on the fight along the Egypt-Libya
border |
| 17 |
1970 |
Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco for Latin America
on a papyrus boat, Ra II, to prove his theories that ancient Egyptians made
similar voyages 4,000 years ago. |
|
|
For more on 17 May |
|
| 18 |
1903 |
The British High Commissioner to South Africa, Lord
Alfred Milner, has proposed that educated and prosperous non-whites should
be allowed to vote in local elections throughout South Africa (as is the
currently the case in the Cape Colony). |
| 18 |
1941 |
World War II: East Africa
The 5th Indian Division, part of General William Platt's Northern Force,
take Amba Alagi after 18 days of fighting. The Italian commander, Duke
d'Aosta, is the last one to leave the fortress. |
|
|
For more on 18 May |
|
| 19 |
19930 |
White women achieve suffrage in South Africa. |
| 19 |
1968 |
Following the announced secession by Biafra from Nigeria
and the subsequent government backed invasion, the Biafran city Port
Harcourt is taken by Federal troops. |
|
|
For more on 19 May |
|
| 20 |
1935 |
A special meeting of the League of Nations is called for
by Abyssinia, requesting aid in defence against Italian aggression. |
| 20 |
1983 |
A South African air force base is bombed by the ANC; 16
are killed and 190 injured. |
|
|
For more on 20 May |
|
