The last batch of my on-paper stamps are getting dunked into the water here (to separate the stamps from the paper).
By 1985, push had came to SHOVE in South Africa’s national politics, with a State of Emergency in place (effectively a form of martial law), and thousands of demonstrators detained in jail.
Botha declared in his famous Rubicon speech in August 1985 that he would not support majority rule or the participation of black South Africans in the national government.
He fell ill in 1989, though, and was forced to hand over the reigns to F.W. de Klerk.
De Klerk introduced radical policy changes that led to the dismantling of the apartheid system, and to the release of Nelson Mandela from jail (in February 1990), which paved the way for the country’s first multiracial elections in April 1994.