Mandela signs the Constitution at Sharpeville

On 10 December 1996, Human Rights Day and the anniversary of the Universal Declaration, Nelson Mandela signed the new Constitution into law at Sharpeville, where the police had killed 69 people in 1960. Cyril Ramaphosa, who had chaired the assembly that wrote it, was beside him. The Constitution came into force on 4 February 1997. The choice of place was the point.