White South Africans vote to end apartheid. International pressure against South Africa’s ongoing white-minority rule and apartheid system had by the 1980s brought boycotts against South African products and sports teams. The result was a deteriorating economy. Clearly, something had to change. When F.W. de Klerk became president of South Africa in 1989, he worked swiftly to shift more power to the black majority. In 1990, he lifted the four-year-old state of emergency that still existed in most provinces. He also began negotiating the end of apartheid with the once-outlawed African National Congress (ANC) and leader Nelson Mandela, who had been imprisoned for 27 years. On March 18, 1992 an overwhelming majority of whites in South Africa voted in a referendum to end their oppressive and racist system. It would be up to parliamentarians to vote themselves out of existence. The last few days of the apartheid countdown were particularly difficult, as right-wing white parliamentarians and the leader of the Zulus took exception to some of the conditions. However, on December 22, 1993, Parliament finally adopted an interim constitution that would stay in place until a new one was created. Free elections were held, electing the ANC government with President Mandela. However, this was an interim process allowing for a balance of powers between blacks, whites and mixed-race constituents. A few years later, the country adopted a new constitution that went into legislative effect on December 10, 1996. The new constitution did away with the power sharing, replacing it with a democratic-style system of government.
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