THIS DAY IN HISTORY

11 February, 1990: Mandela released

Nelson Mandela, leader of the ANC movement fighting to end apartheid, is released from prison after 27 years on 11 February, 1990.

In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the ANC, the oldest black political organisation in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg’s youth wing. In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid – South Africa’s institutionalised system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Mandela helped organise a paramilitary branch of the party to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.

In 1961, he was arrested for treason and, although acquitted, he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years on Robben Island, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage. In June 1964, he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison.

Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison. Confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing, he was forced to do hard labour in a quarry. He could write and receive a letter once every six months and once a year, he was allowed to have a visitor for 30 minutes. However, Mandela’s resolve remained unbroken and while remaining the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement, he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island. He was later moved to Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison.

In 1989, FW de Klerk became SA president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions and in February 1990, ordered the release of Nelson Mandela.

Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and De Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, the ANC won an electoral majority in the country’s first free elections and Mandela was elected South Africa’s president.

He retired from politics in 1999 but remained a global advocate for peace and social justice until his death in December 2013.