Singing ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’ with his then wife, Winnie Mandela, at his Welcome Home rally at the FNB Stadium, Soweto, on 13 February 1990, two days after his release from prison. More than 100,000 people attended the rally to hear him speak.
Mandela addresses the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid, New York, 1990, and urges it to maintain sanctions imposed by the UN and individual governments against South Africa until apartheid is abolished. Economic sanctions against South Africa, which the UN had imposed since 1962, were lifted in October 1993.
In January 1991 the leaders of the warring IFP and ANC, Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Nelson Mandela, met and issued a statement on a joint peace agreement to stop the political violence. This cartoon published in Die Transvaler suggests the leaders’ underlying feelings towards each other aren’t quite so magnanimous.
With IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and President F. W. de Klerk at a press conference to announce the IFP’s late entry into South Africa’s first democratic elections, only weeks out from polling, in April 1994.
Mandela and Walter Sisulu salute the coffin of popular political activist Chris Hani, FNB Stadium, Soweto, 19 April 1993. Hani’s assassination almost led the country into civil war. In a televised address, Mandela urged the nation to act with dignity and rededicate itself to bringing about democracy (see here).
Mandela salutes the crowd during an election rally in Galeshewe Stadium, near Kimberley, 1994. Long-serving bodyguard Mzwandile Vena says that Mandela’s unpredictability when he was among the people made him a nightmare for his security detail. ‘You had to be alert all the time’ (see here).
Election campaigning, 1994. Mandela wrote that ‘To the black majority’ the forthcoming election ‘meant the birth of a dream’ (see here).
Mandela votes for the first time at Ohlange High School, Inanda, 27 April 1994. The venue was near the grave of the first ANC president, John Dube.
In this cartoon, published in The Sowetan, Nanda Soobben juxtaposes the hype and excitement surrounding Mandela’s inauguration with his voting public’s expectations for basic necessities.
Estranged from his wife, Winnie, Mandela’s daughter HRH Princess Zenani Dlamini accompanies him at the luncheon following his inauguration, Pretoria, 10 May 1994.
President Mandela flanked by his two deputy presidents – Thabo Mbeki (left) and F. W. de Klerk, the outgoing president, Union Buildings, Pretoria, 10 May 1994.
Outside Tuynhuys, the presidential office in Cape Town, on the day of the opening of the first democratic parliament. Mandela is with (from left to right) MP Cyril Ramaphosa, Zanele Mbeki and her husband Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, Speaker of Parliament Frene Ginwala, Kobie Coetsee, who served as president of the Senate until 2008, and Deputy President F. W. de Klerk.
Mandela with some of his first cabinet and senior presidency officials. He is flanked by IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi to his right and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki to his left.
A page from chapter five of Mandela’s manuscript of his memoir of his presidential years. Here he has set out the names of his cabinet in the Government of National Unity to show that his list was fully representative of different ethnic groups. This was in response to accusations that the ANC was primarily occupied with the concerns of Africans. ‘There are still public figures in our country – diehards – who are still peddling this ignoble propaganda,’ he writes (see here).
With Jessie Duarte, ANC chief of operations in the presidency.
With Joe Slovo, who was appointed minister of housing in the Government of National Unity.
With Trevor Manuel, who became South Africa’s longest-serving finance minister.
Mandela and director general in the presidency Jakes Gerwel, known as ‘Prof’.
In Parliament with his long-time friend, former fellow prisoner and political adviser Ahmed Kathrada.
Mandela was a copious note-taker and would minute meetings in his diary, as he did for this meeting, on 30 December 1996, with officers of the South African Police Service.
President Mandela visits former South African president and staunch supporter of apartheid P. W. Botha, known as ‘Die Groot Krokodil’ (The Big Crocodile), at his home in Wilderness, 1995.
Actively practising reconciliation, Mandela visited Betsie Verwoerd, the widow of the architect of apartheid, Dr H. F. Verwoerd, at her home in the ‘whites only’ town of Orania, 1995.
Signing the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Sharpeville, 10 December 1996, with (from right) Cyril Ramaphosa and mayor of the Lekoa-Vaal Metropolitan Council, Yunus Chamda.
At Libertas, the presidential residence in Pretoria, which Mandela renamed Mahlamba Ndlopfu, meaning ‘The New Dawn’ in Xitsonga or, literally, ‘the washing of the elephants’.
In his old cell on Robben Island at a reunion of political prisoners, 10 February 1995.
With US president Bill Clinton at the White House, Washington, DC. Mandela took advantage of his personal relationships with international leaders to influence negotiations and conflict resolution.
With Cuban president Fidel Castro. Mandela was insistent that Castro attend his inauguration.
In this original page of the manuscript, from chapter six, Mandela prefaces his description of his friend and former partner in law Oliver Tambo by commenting that the ANC has always had members who have preferred to remain in the background while mentoring younger members into leadership roles. Later, he has annotated the text with the words: ‘Comrade Walter Sisulu is such a man; that is why he has always towered above all of us irrespective of the offices we occupied in the movement or government’ (see here).
With French president Jacques Chirac at a Bastille Day military parade, Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1996.
With Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
With Graça Machel, Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik of Denmark, Copenhagen, 1999.
With Queen Elizabeth II, travelling along the Mall to Buckingham Palace, London, 1996.
With Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, 1999 (see here).
With Graça Machel, Heathrow Airport, 1997. They began corresponding after Mandela sent her a letter of condolence from prison following the death of her husband, Mozambican president Samora Machel, in 1986. They were married on Mandela’s eightieth birthday in 1998.
Mandela insisted on carrying out many mundane personal tasks himself, to the point of making his bed in hotels and polishing his shoes aboard the presidential jet. ‘You just didn’t throw things in his presence,’ says his widow, Graça Machel. ‘Where he is, everything has got to be orderly … impeccably clean’ (see here).
In this handwritten page from chapter six of Mandela’s memoir, he explains that due to the corrupt and inhumane practices of institutions of law and order under the apartheid regime, he ‘exploited every opportunity to promote respect for law and order and for the judiciary’ in the new democratic South Africa (see here).
At a Tri Nations Series rugby game with Zelda la Grange, who worked for Mandela for nineteen years, first as his private secretary, then as his aide-de-camp, spokesperson and office manager during his retirement years.
Mandela and Graça Machel visit Pollsmoor Prison, 1997, where Mandela himself had been incarcerated ten years earlier, to meet with prisoners following allegations that they had been assaulted.
With Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, after South Africa won the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Mandela’s gesture of wearing the Springbok cap and jersey won thousands of Afrikaner hearts.
At the Fiftieth National Conference of the ANC, Mandela steps down as president of the organisation and hands the reins over to Thabo Mbeki, Mafikeng, 20 December 1997. Upon closing the conference, he said, ‘I look forward to that period when I will be able to wake up with the sun; to walk the hills and valleys of Qunu in peace and tranquillity’ (see here).
Receiving the report of the Truth and Reconciliatio
n Commission from the commission’s chairman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pretoria, 1998. The commission investigated human rights violations that took place between 1960 and 1994. Aware of doubts about the process, Mandela admitted its imperfections but insisted on a national recognition of the crimes of the past (see here).
Greeting children in his hometown, Qunu, Christmas Day, 1995. Describing Qunu to Richard Stengel in 1993, he said, ‘the people there, you know, there is a different dimension altogether, and I get … so pleased when I listen to them talk; their mannerisms, it reminds me of my younger days’.
Talking to students at the launch of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Pretoria, 1995. Health care and education for children were among his main concerns, and he donated a third of his salary while he was in office towards the fund.
Youth welcome their hero as he demonstrates the famous ‘Madiba Shuffle’ while dancing to a local band during a visit to Oukasie township in Brits, 1995.
Always recharged by interaction with the public, here Mandela embraces a staff member at Hanover Day Hospital, Hanover Park, 1996.
After his retirement, Mandela became one of Africa’s leading campaigners for HIV/AIDS awareness. Here he speaks at a Red Ribbon event in support of HIV/AIDS awareness in 1998.
President Mandela receives a standing ovation after making his final speech to South Africa’s first democratically elected parliament before he retires as president, Parliament, Cape Town, 26 March 1999.
In this cartoon by Zapiro, the infant democratic nation lets out a collective wistful sigh as the sun sets on ‘The Mandela era’ and its first democratic president retires from public office in March 1999.
Supplementary Information
Appendix A
Abbreviations for Organisations
ADFL
Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire
ANC
African National Congress
ANCWL
African National Congress Women’s League
ANCYL
African National Congress Youth League
AVF
Afrikaner Volksfront
AWB
Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
CODESA
Convention for a Democratic South Africa
CONTRALESA
Congress of Traditional Leaders
COSATU
Congress of South African Trade Unions
GNU
Government of National Unity
IEC
Independent Electoral Commission
IFP
Inkatha Freedom Party
JSC
Judicial Service Commission
MK
Umkhonto weSizwe
MPLA
Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola)
NAM
Non-Aligned Movement
NCPS
National Crime Prevention Strategy
NEC
National Executive Committee
NIA
National Intelligence Agency
NP
National Party
OAU
Organisation of African Unity
PAC
Pan Africanist Congress of Azania
SACP
South African Communist Party
SADC
Southern African Development Community
SADF
South African Defence Force
SAIC
South African Indian Congress
SANDF
South African National Defence Force
SAPS
South African Police Service
SASS
South African Secret Service
SAUF
South African United Front
SWAPO
South West Africa People’s Organisation
TEC
Transitional Executive Council
TRC
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
UDF
United Democratic Front
UNITA
União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola)
Appendix B
People, Places and Events
African National Congress (ANC)
Established as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in 1912. Renamed African National Congress (ANC) in 1923. Following the Sharpeville Massacre in March 1960, the ANC was banned by the South African government and went underground until the ban was lifted in 1990. Its military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), was established in 1961, with Mandela as commander-in-chief. The ANC became South Africa’s governing party after the nation’s first democratic elections on 27 April 1994.
African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL)
Established in 1948. Actively involved in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the anti-pass campaigns.
African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL)
Founded in 1944 by Nelson Mandela, Anton Lembede, Walter Sisulu, A. P. Mda and Oliver Tambo as a reaction to the ANC’s more conservative outlook. Its activities included civil disobedience and strikes in protest against the apartheid system. Many members left and formed the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) in 1959. Banned between 1960 and 1990.
Afrikaner Volksfront (AVF – Afrikaner People’s Front)
Founded on 19 May 1993 as an organisation to unite white Afrikaans speakers, it included organisations such as the extreme right Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) and former generals of the apartheid-era army and police. It demanded independence for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans and campaigned for an Afrikaner volkstaat or homeland.
Autshumao (spelt by Mandela as Autshumayo)
(d. 1663). Khoikhoi leader. Learnt English and Dutch and worked as an interpreter during the Dutch settlement of the Cape of Good Hope from 1652. He and two of his followers were banished by Jan van Riebeeck to Robben Island in 1658 after waging war with the Dutch settlers. He was one of the first people to be imprisoned on Robben Island and the only person to ever successfully escape.
Barnard, Dr Lukas (Niël)
(1949–). Academic. Professor of political studies at the University of the Orange Free State, 1978. Head of South Africa’s Intelligence Service, 1980–92. Held clandestine meetings with Mandela in prison in preparation for his subsequent release and rise to political power. This included facilitating meetings between Mandela and Presidents P. W. Botha and, later, F. W. de Klerk. Director-general Western Cape Provincial Administration, 1996–2001.
Biko, Stephen Bantu
(1946–77). Anti-apartheid activist and African nationalist. Leader of the Black Consciousness Movement. Founder of the South African Students Organisation (SASO), 1968, and its president in 1969. Co-founder of the Black People’s Convention in 1972. Banned and forbidden from participating in political activities in 1973. Arrested and murdered by the police, August 1977.
Bizos, George
(1928–). Greek-born human rights lawyer. Member and co-founder of the National Council of Lawyers for Human Rights. Committee member of the ANC’s Legal and Constitutional Committee. Legal adviser for Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). Defence lawyer in the Rivonia Trial. Also acted for high-profile anti-apartheid activists, including the families of Steve Biko, Chris Hani and the Cradock Four in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Appointed by Mandela to South Africa’s Judicial Services Commission.
Black Consciousness Movement
Anti-apartheid movement targeting black youth and workers. Promoted pride in black identity. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the political vacuum created by the continued banning and imprisonment of members of the ANC and the PAC. Had its origins in the South African Students Organisation led by Steve Biko, who founded the movement.
Botha, Pieter Willem (P. W.)
(1916–2006). Prime minister of South Africa, 1978–84. First e
xecutive state president, 1984–89. Leader of South Africa’s National Party. In 1985, Mandela rejected Botha’s offer to release him on the condition that he rejected violence. Botha refused to testify at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1998 about apartheid crimes.
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