The year 1994 brought South Africa more than its first democratic vote. It also started a new era for business and consumers, according to a look back published by IOL.
That year the country got a new flag, a coin to mark Nelson Mandela becoming president, and its first cellphone networks. Businesses also began working in a country coming out of decades of isolation from the world.
The first democratic elections were held from 26 to 29 April 1994. Millions of people voted on 27 April, the main voting day.
The South African Reserve Bank marked Mandela’s inauguration with a special R5 coin. Mandela was sworn in as the first democratically elected president on 10 May at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
The coin is listed among the Reserve Bank’s commemorative coins as the 1994 Presidential Inauguration issue.
The new national flag was first used on 27 April 1994. It replaced the flag that had been in use since 1928.
Former State Herald Fred Brownell designed the flag. In February 1994 the Transitional Executive Council set up a technical committee with Brownell as its convenor. The committee was given one week to find a suitable flag.
The design was shown to the council and unveiled on 15 March. Its Y shape joins six colours and was meant to show different parts of South African society coming together.
The flag was first meant to be a temporary symbol. Its use on election day and at Mandela’s inauguration made it one of the best known signs of the change to democracy.
Cellphones also arrived in 1994. Vodacom and MTN formally launched their networks on 1 June that year.
At the time, access to telephones was uneven across the country. Fixed phone lines did not reach everyone.
MTN started building its network in January and held a launch event at the Johannesburg Planetarium on 28 February. Both companies were getting ready for paid services before the official switch on.
Vodacom’s own history, written for its 30th anniversary, says it connected 10,000 customers on its first day of mobile voice calls. Cellphones were expensive then, and most South Africans could not easily buy one.
Music was changing too. South African History Online names 1994 as an important year for local music. It points to the rise of Prophets of Da City, a hip-hop group from Cape Town.
Kwaito also became better known in this period. The sound is South African and draws on house music and hip-hop.
Sport showed the country’s new place in the world. In August 1994 South Africa returned to the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, for the first time in 36 years.
The team won 11 medals at those games. Both gold medals came in lawn bowls, where the men’s and women’s fours teams won. South African athletes also took home silver and bronze medals.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.