 The airport was renamed Johannesburg International Airport in 1994 when the newly elected African National Congress (ANC) government implemented a policy of not naming airports after politicians.This policy was later reversed, and on 27 October 2006 the airport was renamed O. R. Tambo International Airport after Oliver Reginald Tambo, a former ANC President.The airport was founded in 1952 as Jan Smuts International Airport, two years after Smuts's death, near the town of Kempton Park on the East Rand.