History of Right-Wing Afrikaner Politics In South Africa

1948:The National Party (NP), a right-wing breakaway from the more moderate South African Party, comes to power and begins implementing apartheid.

1969: The Herstigte Nasionale Party (Purified National Party) breaks with the NP over participation of national sporting teams in matches against international rivals with nonwhite athletes.

1982: Conservative Party (CP) created from breakaway NP members over limited power sharing with racial minorities.

1987: In whites-only elections, the CP replaces the liberal Democratic Party as the official opposition in Parliament.

February 1990: President Frederik de Klerk, who came to power six months earlier, legalizes anti-apartheid groups.

December 1991: The CP boycotts first round of multiparty talks.

1992: The Afrikaner Volksunie breaks with the CP and joins the multiparty talks.

April 1993: Hard-liner Ferdi Hartzenberg takes over leadership of CP.

The Afrikaner Volksfront, an umbrella for some 25 right-wing groups including the CP, is formed under former Defense Force chief Gen. Constand Viljoen. The AVF demands an Afrikaner homeland.

The CP enters the third round of multiparty negotiations.

June 1993: The neofascist Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), lead by Eugene Terre Blanche, dominates a right-wing demonstration outside the multiparty negotiating forum and breaks into the building.

July 1993: The CP withdraws from the multiparty talks.

August 1993: General Viljoen and ANC President Nelson Mandela hold secret talks over self-determination and an Afrikaner homeland. Bilateral negotiations between the two parties continue to the present.

October 1993: The Freedom Alliance, an umbrella group of conservative black groups and the white right-wing, including the AVF, is formed.

November 1993: Freedom Alliance members boycott interim constitution agreed to at multiparty negotiations.

February 1994: Interim constitution is amended to accommodate Freedom Alliance demands for principle of self-determination for ethnic minorities.

March 1994: AWB and AVF clash during paramilitary operation aimed at propping up President Lucas Mangope of the black homeland Boputhatswana.

Viljoen breaks with the AVF and takes eight CP legislators with him. He registers a new right-wing party, the Freedom Front, to take part in the April elections.