Jessie Duarte

Duarte served as a special assistant to Mandela from 1990 to 1994

I remember that moment alone, the hour before he made the inauguration speech, just alone, by himself in that room . . . [that’s] when I thought it finally hit home, that they’ve achieved it, they’ve come this far, they’ve got to this point, something that had eluded them for 27 years, that took a hard fight, that many people had died for. I’ve never seen Madiba sitting that quietly, he always fidgeted a bit, but there was that moment.