History of South Africa The Democratic Party and Pan Africanist Congress, among others, formed a parliamentary opposition in the country's first non-racial parliament. Nelson Mandela was elected as President on 9 May 1994 and formed a Government of National Unity, consisting of the ANC, the National Party and Inkatha. On 10 May 1994 Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's new President in Pretoria with Thabo Mbeki and F. W. De Klerk as his vice-presidents. The Government of National Unity lapsed at the end of the first parliament sitting in 1999, with the ANC becoming the sole party in power while maintaining a strategic alliance
Religion in South Africa owned by European settlers. Many came from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, and some from other states of India. Early Hindu settlements in South Africa suffered discrimination, abuse and persecution. Hindu Indians were among the people who were referred to as coolies, racially segregated, and their discrimination continued through the Apartheid era until 1994. The first Hindu temples were in operation in the 1870s. Some South African local governments banned temple building and property ownership by Hindus in 1910s. Modern South Africa has many Hindu temples, and its Hindu community observes major festivals of Hinduism such as