Ruth First is assassinated

Boycotts and demonstrations marked twenty years of the republic by challenging a state founded on the exclusion of the Black majority.

Rocket fire struck the major military complex outside Pretoria, symbolically targeting the armed institutions protecting apartheid.

The General Assembly designated 1982 for worldwide action to secure sanctions against South Africa and intensify pressure on apartheid.

The trade-union organizer died after prolonged Security Branch interrogation. His death triggered protests and a major labour funeral.

Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba and Andrew Mlangeni were moved from Robben Island, partly as the state began considering political contacts.

The attack on houses in Lesotho killed ANC members and Basotho civilians, provoking international condemnation of apartheid's cross-border warfare.

Explosives damaged the unfinished plant near Cape Town shortly before fuel was to be loaded, delaying the project without causing deaths.

An MK car bomb outside the South African Air Force headquarters killed military personnel and civilians and wounded many others.

Delegates from hundreds of civic, youth, religious, women's and labour organizations formed a national front against the tricameral constitution and apartheid.

The referendum created separate parliamentary chambers for white, Coloured and Indian representatives while excluding the African majority.