233-477: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( / m æ n ˈ d ɛ l ə / man- DEL -ə , Xhosa: [xolíɬaɬa mandɛ̂ːla] ; born Rolihlahla Mandela ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling
466-607: A University of South Africa correspondence course, working on his bachelor's degree at night. Earning a small wage, Mandela rented a room in the house of the Xhoma family in the Alexandra township; despite being rife with poverty, crime and pollution, Alexandra always remained a special place for him. Although embarrassed by his poverty, he briefly dated a Swazi woman before unsuccessfully courting his landlord's daughter. To save money and be closer to downtown Johannesburg, Mandela moved into
699-590: A sabotage campaign against the apartheid government. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1962, and, following the Rivonia Trial , was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state. Mandela served 27 years in prison, split between Robben Island , Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison . Amid growing domestic and international pressure and fears of racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. Mandela and de Klerk led efforts to negotiate an end to apartheid, which resulted in
932-587: A "frontline" country because of its shared border with South Africa, where the ANC was attempting to re-establish its underground. However, although he travelled frequently in subsequent years, the ANC's Lusaka headquarters remained his central base. Between 1975 and 1976, Mbeki was instrumental in establishing the ANC's frontline base in Swaziland. He was first sent there to assess the political landscape in January 1975, under
1165-604: A Ghanaian Maoist group led by Leballo. APLA was destroyed by the Tanzanian military at Chunya on 11 March 1980 for refusing to accept the reformist-diplomatic leadership by Make. Leballo was influential in the South African 1985 student risings and pivotal in removing Leabua Jonathan's regime in Lesotho, the stress of which caused his death. The PAC never recovered from the 1980 massacre of Leballo's troops and his death and only won 1.2% of
1398-534: A National Voluntary Board to recruit volunteers. The campaign was designed to follow the path of nonviolent resistance influenced by Mahatma Gandhi ; some supported this for ethical reasons, but Mandela instead considered it pragmatic. At a Durban rally on 22 June, Mandela addressed an assembled crowd of 10,000 people, initiating the campaign protests for which he was arrested and briefly interned in Marshall Square prison. These events established Mandela as one of
1631-812: A State of Emergency and gave the army and police special powers. In 1986, the South African Army sent a captain in the South African Defence Force (SADF) to kill Mbeki. The plan was to put a bomb in his house in Lusaka, but the assassin was arrested by the Zambian police before he could go through with the plan. In 1985, Mbeki became the ANC's director of the Department of Information and Publicity and coordinated diplomatic campaigns to involve more white South Africans in anti-apartheid activities. In 1989, he rose in
1864-570: A car accident the following year; Mandela was forbidden from attending either funeral. His wife was rarely able to see him, being regularly imprisoned for political activity, and his daughters first visited in December 1975. Winnie was released from prison in 1977 but was forcibly settled in Brandfort and remained unable to see him. From 1967 onwards, prison conditions improved. Black prisoners were given trousers rather than shorts, games were permitted, and
2097-799: A church vestibule, which led to the creation of the South African Students Organisation (SASO), under Biko, in 1969. The BCM was an umbrella organisation for groups such as SASO. It was created in 1967, and among its members were the Azanian People's Organisation , the black Community Programme (which directed welfare schemes for blacks), the Black People's Convention (BPC) and the South African Students Movement (SASM), which represented high-school learners. The BPC originally attempted to unite charitable associations like
2330-616: A controlled direction, convincing both ANC leader Albert Luthuli —who was morally opposed to violence—and allied activist groups of its necessity. Inspired by the actions of Fidel Castro 's 26th of July Movement in the Cuban Revolution , in 1961 Mandela, Sisulu and Slovo co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation", abbreviated MK). Becoming chairman of the militant group, Mandela gained ideas from literature on guerrilla warfare by Marxist militants Mao and Che Guevara as well as from
2563-423: A drastic theory, much like socialism, as the liberation movement progressed to challenging class divisions and shifting from an ethnic stress to focusing more on non-racialism . The BCM became more worried about the destiny of the black people as workers and believed that "economic and political exploitation has reduced the black people into a class". With Black Consciousness increasing throughout black communities,
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#17328510238452796-678: A fairly common practice, and even a rite of passage, among young people identified as belonging to the future generation of ANC and SACP political leaders. He was educated at the Lenin Institute , where, because of the secrecy required, he went by the alias "Jack Fortune." He excelled at the institute and in June 1970 was appointed to the Central Committee of the SACP, alongside Chris Hani. The last part of his training entailed military training, also
3029-526: A former American diplomat, revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency , which feared Mandela's associations with communists, had informed the South African police of his location. Jailed in Johannesburg's Marshall Square prison, Mandela was charged with inciting workers' strikes and leaving the country without permission. Representing himself with Slovo as legal advisor, Mandela intended to use
3262-406: A full-fledged attorney. In August 1953, Mandela and Tambo opened their own law firm, Mandela and Tambo , operating in downtown Johannesburg. The only African-run law firm in the country, it was popular with aggrieved black people, often dealing with cases of police brutality . Disliked by the authorities, the firm was forced to relocate to a remote location after their office permit was removed under
3495-495: A full-time student, subsisting on loans from the Bantu Welfare Trust. In July 1947, Mandela rushed Lembede, who was ill, to hospital, where he died; he was succeeded as ANCYL president by the more moderate Peter Mda , who agreed to co-operate with communists and non-blacks, appointing Mandela ANCYL secretary. Mandela disagreed with Mda's approach, and in December 1947 supported an unsuccessful measure to expel communists from
3728-570: A girl for the first time; he began playing sports and developed his lifelong love of gardening. He completed his Junior Certificate in two years, and in 1937 he moved to Healdtown , the Methodist college in Fort Beaufort attended by most Thembu royalty, including Justice. The headmaster emphasised the superiority of European culture and government, but Mandela became increasingly interested in native African culture , making his first non-Xhosa friend,
3961-532: A group of disenchanted ANC members broke away from the ANC and formed the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) in 1959. First on the PAC's agenda was a series of nationwide demonstrations against the pass laws . The PAC called for blacks to demonstrate against pass books on 21 March 1960. One of the mass demonstrations organised by the PAC took place at Sharpeville , a township near Vereeniging . The size of
4194-450: A group, named Ulundi, that represented all political prisoners (including Eddie Daniels ) on the island, through which he forged links with PAC and Yu Chi Chan Club members. Initiating the "University of Robben Island", whereby prisoners lectured on their own areas of expertise, he debated socio-political topics with his comrades. Though attending Christian Sunday services, Mandela studied Islam. He also studied Afrikaans , hoping to build
4427-503: A hotel in Switzerland . Known as "Operation Flair", PW Botha was kept informed of all the meetings. At the same time, Mandela and Kobie Coetzee , the Minister of Justice, were also holding secret talks. When Mbeki finally was able to return home to South Africa and was reunited with his own father, the elder Mbeki told a reporter, "You must remember that Thabo Mbeki is no longer my son. He
4660-581: A lawyer in Johannesburg . There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943 and co-founding its Youth League in 1944. After the National Party 's white-only government established apartheid, a system of racial segregation that privileged whites , Mandela and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. He was appointed president of the ANC's Transvaal branch, rising to prominence for his involvement in
4893-480: A lime quarry. Mandela was initially forbidden to wear sunglasses, and the glare from the lime permanently damaged his eyesight. At night, he worked on his LLB degree, which he was obtaining from the University of London through a correspondence course with Wolsey Hall, Oxford , but newspapers were forbidden, and he was locked in solitary confinement on several occasions for the possession of smuggled news clippings. He
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#17328510238455126-489: A local Methodist school when he was about seven. Baptised a Methodist, Mandela was given the English forename of "Nelson" by his teacher. When Mandela was about nine, his father came to stay at Qunu, where he died of an undiagnosed ailment that Mandela believed to be lung disease. Feeling "cut adrift", he later said that he inherited his father's "proud rebelliousness" and "stubborn sense of fairness". Mandela's mother took him to
5359-426: A medium for its message. The BCM drew most of its backing from high schools and tertiary institutions. Black Consciousness ethics were crucial in lifting consciousness amongst black people of their value and right to a better existence, along with the need to insist on these. The BCM's non-violent approach subsided in favour of a more radical element as its resolve to attain liberty was met with state hostility. After
5592-666: A more radical generation. During this epoch, new anti-apartheid ideas and establishments were created, and they gathered support from across South Africa. The surfacing of the South African Black Consciousness Movement was influenced by its American equivalent, the American Black Power movement, and directors like Malcolm X . African heads like Kenneth Kaunda suggested ideas of autonomy and Black Pride by means of their anti-colonialist writings. Scholars grew in assurance and became far more candid about
5825-611: A mutual respect with the warders and convert them to his cause. Various official visitors met with Mandela, most significantly the liberal parliamentary representative Helen Suzman of the Progressive Party , who championed Mandela's cause outside of prison. In September 1970, he met British Labour Party politician Denis Healey . South African Minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger visited in December 1974, but he and Mandela did not get along with each other. His mother visited in 1968, dying shortly after, and his firstborn son Thembi died in
6058-559: A national front in politics, the United Democratic Front (UDF). Simultaneously, inter-factional rivalry between the ANC, the PAC and the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO), a third militant force, escalated into sectarian violence as the three groups fought for influence. The government took the opportunity to declare a state of emergency in 1986 and detain thousands of its political opponents without trial. Secret bilateral negotiations to end apartheid commenced in 1987 as
6291-449: A new generation of leaders had to be prepared for succession. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mbeki's key role in the early negotiations made him a likely contender for top leadership positions in the party, and he was even considered to be in line for the ANC presidency. However, at the ANC's 48th National Conference in July 1991, its first national elective conference since 1960, Mbeki
6524-538: A number of other organisations were formed to combat apartheid. In 1972, the Black People's Convention was founded, and the black Allied Worker's Union, formed in 1973, focused on black labour matters. The black community programmes gave attention to the more global issues of black communities. School learners began to confront the Bantu education policy, which was designed to prepare them to be second-class citizens. They created
6757-464: A plan for bringing exiles back into the country. It also revealed that MK was planning to use guerrilla warfare . The PAC's secretive martial arm was called Poqo, meaning "go it alone". It was prepared to take lives in the quest for liberation: it murdered whites, police informants and black people who supported the government. It sought to arrange a national revolution to conquer the white government, but poor organisation and in-house nuisances crippled
6990-574: A political path as a lawyer rather than become a privy councillor in Thembuland. Mandela began studying law at the University of the Witwatersrand , where he was the only black African student and faced racism. There, he befriended liberal and communist European, Jewish and Indian students, among them Joe Slovo and Ruth First . Becoming increasingly politicised, Mandela marched in August 1943 in support of
7223-459: A political speech. Found guilty, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment; as he left the courtroom, supporters sang " Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika ". I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to see realised. But if it needs be, it
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7456-536: A post-apartheid era. Based on the responses, a Freedom Charter was drafted by Rusty Bernstein , calling for the creation of a democratic, non-racialist state with the nationalisation of major industry. The charter was adopted at a June 1955 conference in Kliptown , which was forcibly closed down by police. The tenets of the Freedom Charter remained important for Mandela, and in 1956 he described it as "an inspiration to
7689-516: A rational expectation. — Mbeki in 1997, on filling Mandela's shoes Following the 1994 elections , South Africa's first under universal suffrage , Mbeki became one of the two national deputy presidents in the ANC-led Government of National Unity , in which Mandela was president. At the ANC's next national conference , held in December that year, Mbeki was elected unopposed to the ANC deputy presidency, also under Mandela. In June 1996,
7922-547: A realization of the dangerous situation to which Nationalist policy is leading. We hope that we will bring the Government and its supporters to their senses before it is too late so that both government and its policies can be changed before matters reach the desperate stage of civil war. — Statement released by MK to announce the start of their sabotage campaign Operating through a cell structure, MK planned to carry out acts of sabotage that would exert maximum pressure on
8155-462: A rented house in the township of Orlando in early 1946. Their first child, Madiba "Thembi" Thembekile, was born in February 1945; a daughter, Makaziwe, was born in 1947 but died of meningitis nine months later. Mandela enjoyed home life, welcoming his mother and his sister, Leabie, to stay with him. In early 1947, his three years of articles ended at Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman, and he decided to become
8388-406: A rite of passage, including in intelligence, guerrilla tactics, and weaponry. However, his biographer Mark Gevisser adduces that he was "not the ideal candidate for military life," and Max Sisulu , who trained alongside him, says that he always regarded Mbeki as better suited to political leadership than military leadership. In April 1971, having been pulled out from military training, Mbeki
8621-741: A role in African and global politics that was disproportionate to the country's size and historical influence. He was the central architect of the New Partnership for Africa's Development and, as the inaugural chairperson of the African Union , spearheaded the introduction of the African Peer Review Mechanism . After the IBSA Dialogue Forum was launched in 2003, his government collaborated with India and Brazil to lobby for reforms at
8854-416: A seminal influence on Mandela's thought. The speech laid out a contingency plan for a scenario in which the ANC was banned. This Mandela Plan, or M-Plan, involved dividing the organisation into a cell structure with a more centralised leadership. Mandela obtained work as an attorney for the firm Terblanche and Briggish, before moving to the liberal-run Helman and Michel, passing qualification exams to become
9087-697: A significant part of his life. He attended a Methodist mission school located next to the palace, where he studied English, Xhosa, history and geography. He developed a love of African history , listening to the tales told by elderly visitors to the palace, and was influenced by the anti-imperialist rhetoric of a visiting chief, Joyi. Nevertheless, at the time he considered the European colonizers not as oppressors but as benefactors who had brought education and other benefits to southern Africa. Aged 16, he, his cousin Justice and several other boys travelled to Tyhalarha to undergo
9320-434: A six-month course in guerrilla warfare, but completed only two months before being recalled to South Africa by the ANC's leadership. On 5 August 1962, police captured Mandela along with fellow activist Cecil Williams near Howick . Many MK members suspected that the authorities had been tipped off with regard to Mandela's whereabouts, although Mandela himself gave these ideas little credence. In later years, Donald Rickard ,
9553-660: A speaker of Sotho , and coming under the influence of one of his favourite teachers, a Xhosa who broke taboo by marrying a Sotho. Mandela spent much of his spare time at Healdtown as a long-distance runner and boxer, and in his second year he became a prefect . In 1939, with Jongintaba's backing, Mandela began work on a BA degree at the University of Fort Hare , an elite black institution of approximately 150 students in Alice, Eastern Cape . He studied English, anthropology , politics, "native administration", and Roman Dutch law in his first year, desiring to become an interpreter or clerk in
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9786-442: A successful bus boycott to reverse fare rises. Joining the ANC, he was increasingly influenced by Sisulu, spending time with other activists at Sisulu's Orlando house, including his old friend Oliver Tambo. In 1943, Mandela met Anton Lembede , an ANC member affiliated with the "Africanist" branch of African nationalism , which was virulently opposed to a racially united front against colonialism and imperialism or to an alliance with
10019-661: A surprise attack on the SADF base in Matola, Mozambique, killing 16 SADF soldiers and wounding more than 40. On 8 December 1982, ANC guerrillas attacked the South African embassy in Maseru, Lesotho, killing three people and injuring several others and on 14 November 1987, the ANC targeted the Vlakplaas police station in Pretoria with a car bomb, killing three police officers and injuring 18 others. Vlakplaas
10252-504: A terrorist organisation sympathetic to communism and supported its suppression. In April 1982, Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Tokai, Cape Town , along with senior ANC leaders Walter Sisulu, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Raymond Mhlaba; they believed that they were being isolated to remove their influence on younger activists at Robben Island. Conditions at Pollsmoor were better than at Robben Island, although Mandela missed
10485-478: A top-level strategic meeting in Luanda , Angola, when Maharaj, who had been tasked with running the political underground, claimed that Mbeki's records from the Swaziland office were in fact "just an empty folder." After being deported, Mbeki returned to Lusaka, where he was made Duma Nokwe's deputy in the ANC's Department of Information and Propaganda (DIP). In January 1977, he was posted to Lagos , Nigeria, where he
10718-649: A touring football team, and then in Rhodesia . He arrived at the ANC's new headquarters in Dar es Salaam , Tanzania, in November 1962, and left shortly afterwards for England. While at Sussex, Mbeki was involved in ANC work and in broader organising for the English Anti-Apartheid Movement . Months after his arrival, his father was arrested during a Security Branch raid at Liliesleaf Farm in July 1963. During
10951-750: A two-year term. Controversially, in February 2007, South Africa followed Russia and China in voting against a draft resolution calling for an end to political detentions and military attacks against ethnic minorities in Myanmar. Mbeki later told the media that the resolution exceeded the Security Council's mandate, and that its tabling had been illegal in terms of international law . Mbeki's presidency coincided with an escalating political and economic crisis in South Africa's neighbour, Zimbabwe, under president Mugabe of ZANU-PF. Problems included land invasions under
11184-415: A verdict of not guilty, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to convict the accused of "high treason", since they had advocated neither communism nor violent revolution; the outcome embarrassed the government. Disguised as a chauffeur, Mandela travelled around the country incognito, organising the ANC's new cell structure and the planned mass stay-at-home strike. Referred to as the "Black Pimpernel" in
11417-656: A violent overthrow of the state, and replacing it with a communist government. The charge was based on statements and speeches made during the Defiance Campaign and the Congress of the People. The Freedom Charter was used as proof of the Alliance's communist intent and their conspiracy to oust the government. The State greatly relied on the evidence of Professor Arthur Murray, an ostensible authority on Marxism and Communism. His evidence
11650-489: Is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999. The son of Govan Mbeki , a renowned ANC intellectual, Mbeki has been involved in ANC politics since 1956, when he joined
11883-492: Is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. — Mandela's Rivonia Trial Speech , 1964 On 11 July 1963, police raided Liliesleaf Farm, arresting those that they found there and uncovering paperwork documenting MK's activities, some of which mentioned Mandela. The Rivonia Trial began at Pretoria Supreme Court in October, with Mandela and his comrades charged with four counts of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow
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#173285102384512116-552: Is based on the will of the people. — Opening words of the Freedom Charter After taking part in the unsuccessful protest to prevent the forced relocation of all black people from the Sophiatown suburb of Johannesburg in February 1955, Mandela concluded that violent action would prove necessary to end apartheid and white minority rule. On his advice, Sisulu requested weaponry from the People's Republic of China, which
12349-522: Is my comrade!" A news article pointed out that this was an expression of pride, explaining, "For Govan Mbeki, a son was a mere biological appendage; to be called a comrade, on the other hand, was the highest honour." In the late 1970s, Mbeki made a number of trips to the United States in search of support among US corporations. Literate and funny, he made a wide circle of friends in New York City. Mbeki
12582-459: Is safely held." Mbeki said in 2004: ...the critical role we should play is to assist the Zimbabweans to find each other, really to agree among themselves about the political, economic, social, other solutions that their country needs. We could have stepped aside from that task and then shouted, and that would be the end of our contribution... They would shout back at us and that would be the end of
12815-593: The "fast-track" land reform programme, political violence and state-sponsored human rights violations, and hyperinflation . With SADC's endorsement, Mbeki frequently acted as a mediator between ZANU-PF and the Zimbabwean opposition. However, controversially, his policy towards the Mugabe regime was one of non-confrontational "quiet diplomacy" and "constructive engagement": he refused to condemn Mugabe and instead attempted to persuade him to accept gradual political reforms. He
13048-480: The 1948 general election . From the early 1950s, the African National Congress (ANC) initiated its Defiance Campaign of passive resistance. Subsequent civil disobedience protests targeted curfews, pass laws , and "petty apartheid" segregation in public facilities. Some anti-apartheid demonstrations resulted in widespread rioting in Port Elizabeth and East London in 1952, but organised destruction of property
13281-658: The 1994 multiracial general election in which Mandela led the ANC to victory and became president. Leading a broad coalition government which promulgated a new constitution , Mandela emphasised reconciliation between the country's racial groups and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. Economically, his administration retained its predecessor's liberal framework despite his own socialist beliefs, also introducing measures to encourage land reform , combat poverty and expand healthcare services. Internationally, Mandela acted as mediator in
13514-594: The ANC Youth League , and has been a member of the party's National Executive Committee since 1975. Born in the Transkei , he left South Africa aged twenty to attend university in England, and spent almost three decades in exile abroad, until the ANC was unbanned in 1990. He rose through the organisation in its information and publicity section and as Oliver Tambo 's protégé, but he was also an experienced diplomat, serving as
13747-596: The African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Both Epainette and Govan came from educated, Christian , land-owning families, and Govan's father was Sikelewu Mbeki, a colonially appointed headman . The couple had met in Durban , where Epainette had become the second black woman to join the SACP (then still called the Communist Party of South Africa). However, while Mbeki
13980-566: The African National Congress (ANC) who wanted South Africa to be independent of the British Empire , Mandela avoided any involvement with the nascent movement, and became a vocal supporter of the British war effort when the Second World War broke out. At the end of his first year he became involved in a students' representative council (SRC) boycott against the quality of food, for which he
14213-587: The African Union (AU), of which he became the inaugural chairperson in 2002, and his government spearheaded the introduction of the AU's African Peer Review Mechanism in 2003. He was twice chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), first from 1999 to 2000 and second, briefly, in 2008. Through these multilateral organisations and by contributing forces to various United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions, Mbeki and his government were involved in peacekeeping initiatives in African countries including Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Liberia,
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#173285102384514446-438: The Cato Institute commended Mbeki's macroeconomic policies, which reduced the budget deficit and public debt and which according to them likely played a role in increasing economic growth. According to the Free Market Foundation , during the Mbeki presidency, average annualised quarter-on-quarter GDP growth was 4.2%, and average annual inflation was 5.7%. On the other hand, the shift alienated leftists, including inside in
14679-439: The Freedom of the City of Glasgow , Scotland in 1981. In March 1980, the slogan "Free Mandela!" was developed by journalist Percy Qoboza , sparking an international campaign that led the UN Security Council to call for his release. Despite increasing foreign pressure, the government refused, relying on its Cold War allies US president Ronald Reagan and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher ; both considered Mandela's ANC
14912-519: The Group Areas Act ; as a result, their clientele dwindled. As a lawyer of aristocratic heritage, Mandela was part of Johannesburg's elite black middle-class, and accorded much respect from the black community. Although a second daughter, Makaziwe Phumia , was born in May 1954, Mandela's relationship with Evelyn became strained, and she accused him of adultery. He may have had affairs with ANC member Lillian Ngoyi and secretary Ruth Mompati; various individuals close to Mandela in this period have stated that
15145-445: The Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) programme, which was introduced in 1996 and remained a cornerstone of Mbeki's administration after 1999. In comparison to the Reconstruction and Development Programme policy which had been the basis of the ANC's platform in 1994, GEAR placed less emphasis on developmental and redistributive imperatives, and subscribed to elements of the liberalisation, deregulation, and privatisation at
15378-687: The National Party withdrew from the Government of National Unity and, with the second deputy, de Klerk, having thereby resigned, Mbeki became the sole deputy president. The same year, as deputy president, Mbeki acted as a peace broker in what was then known as Zaire , following the First Congo War and the deposition of Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko . Mbeki also took on increasing domestic responsibilities, including executive powers delegated to him by Mandela, to such an extent that Mandela called him "a de facto president." Mandela had made it clear publicly since early 1995 or earlier that he intended to retire after one term in office, and by then Mbeki
15611-440: The Native Affairs Department . Mandela stayed in the Wesley House dormitory, befriending his own kinsman, K. D. Matanzima , as well as Oliver Tambo , who became a close friend and comrade for decades to come. He took up ballroom dancing, performed in a drama society play about Abraham Lincoln , and gave Bible classes in the local community as part of the Student Christian Association. Although he had friends who held connections to
15844-418: The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and served as secretary-general of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999. He declined a second presidential term and was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki . Mandela became an elder statesman and focused on combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the charitable Nelson Mandela Foundation . Mandela was a controversial figure for much of his life. Although critics on
16077-425: The Sharpeville massacre , some anti-apartheid movements, including the ANC and PAC, began a shift in tactics from peaceful non-cooperation to the formation of armed resistance wings. Mass strikes and student demonstrations continued into the 1970s, powered by growing black unemployment, the unpopularity of the South African Border War , and a newly assertive Black Consciousness Movement . The brutal suppression of
16310-518: The South African Defence Force . Further apartheid laws were abolished on 17 June 1991, and multiparty negotiations proceeded until the first multi-racial general election held in April 1994. Although its creation predated apartheid, the African National Congress (ANC) became the primary force in opposition to the government after its moderate leadership was superseded by the organisation's more radical Youth League (ANCYL) in 1949. Led by Walter Sisulu , Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo , elected to
16543-486: The South African Indian Congress and the Coloured People's Congress, agreed on a plan for the defiance of unfair laws. They wrote to Prime Minister D. F. Malan and demanded that he repeal the Pass Laws, the Group Areas Act , the Bantu Administration Act and other legislation, warning that refusal to do so would be met with a campaign of defiance. Malan referred the Council to the Native Affairs Department and threatened to treat insolence callously. The Programme of Action
16776-635: The Soweto uprising of 1976, many BCM activists were imprisoned on Robben Island. Mandela tried to build a relationship with these young radicals, although he was critical of their racialism and contempt for white anti-apartheid activists. Renewed international interest in his plight came in July 1978, when he celebrated his 60th birthday. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in Lesotho, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in India in 1979, and
17009-489: The Soweto uprising . The government's effort at defeating all opposition had been effective. The State of Emergency was de-proclaimed, the economy boomed and the government began implementing apartheid by building the infrastructures of the ten separate Homelands and relocating blacks into these homelands. In 1966, Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd was stabbed to death in parliament, but his policies continued under B.J. Vorster and later P.W. Botha . Despite these developments,
17242-592: The United Nations , advocating for a stronger role for developing countries. Among South Africa's various peacekeeping commitments during his presidency, Mbeki was the primary mediator in the conflict between ZANU-PF and the Zimbabwean opposition in the 2000s. However, he was frequently criticised for his policy of "quiet diplomacy" in Zimbabwe, under which he refused to condemn Robert Mugabe 's regime or institute sanctions against it. Also highly controversial worldwide
17475-474: The black economic empowerment programme, critics often regarded Mbeki's economic policies as neoliberal , with insufficient consideration for developmental and redistributive objectives. On these grounds, Mbeki grew increasingly alienated from the left wing of the ANC, and from the leaders of the ANC's Tripartite Alliance partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and South African Communist Party . It
17708-485: The induna (headman) discovered that he was a runaway. He stayed with a cousin in George Goch Township, who introduced Mandela to realtor and ANC activist Walter Sisulu . The latter secured Mandela a job as an articled clerk at the law firm of Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman, a company run by Lazar Sidelsky , a liberal Jew sympathetic to the ANC's cause. At the firm, Mandela befriended Gaur Radebe—a Hlubi member of
17941-567: The propaganda section of the ANC's English headquarters. He remained active in the SACP, which was very closely allied to the ANC, and in 1967 he was appointed to the editorial board of its official magazine, the African Communist . Throughout his time in England, Mbeki was the ward of O. R. Tambo and his wife Adelaide Tambo – in the absence of his parents, it was Adelaide and senior communist Michael Harmel who attended Mbeki's graduation ceremony in 1965. O. R. Tambo later became
18174-706: The ulwaluko circumcision ritual that symbolically marked their transition from boys to men; afterwards he was given the name Dalibunga . Intending to gain skills needed to become a privy councillor for the Thembu royal house, Mandela began his secondary education in 1933 at Clarkebury Methodist High School in Engcobo , a Western-style institution that was the largest school for black Africans in Thembuland . Made to socialise with other students on an equal basis, he claimed that he lost his "stuck up" attitude, becoming best friends with
18407-671: The " Father of the Nation ". Mandela was born on 18 July 1918, in the village of Mvezo in Umtata , then part of South Africa's Cape Province . He was given the forename Rolihlahla, a Xhosa term colloquially meaning "troublemaker", and in later years became known by his clan name, Madiba. His patrilineal great-grandfather, Ngubengcuka , was ruler of the Thembu Kingdom in the Transkeian Territories of South Africa's modern Eastern Cape province. One of Ngubengcuka's sons, named Mandela,
18640-404: The "Great Place" palace at Mqhekezweni, where he was entrusted to the guardianship of the Thembu regent , Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo. Although he did not see his mother again for many years, Mandela felt that Jongintaba and his wife Noengland treated him as their own child, raising him alongside their children. As Mandela attended church services every Sunday with his guardians, Christianity became
18873-412: The "Sobukwe clause", which permitted the state to detain people even after they had served their sentences. The PAC's management difficulties also existed in exile. When they were outlawed, PAC leaders set up headquarters in places like Dar es Salaam , London and the United States. In 1962, Potlako Leballo left the country for Maseru , Basutoland , and became the PAC's acting president. Soon after he
19106-531: The "seminal thinker" behind NEPAD and its "principal author and articulator." According to academic Chris Landsberg, NEPAD's central principle – "African leaders holding one another accountable in exchange for the recommitment of the industrialised world to Africa's development" – epitomised Mbeki's strategy in Africa. Mbeki was also involved in the dissolution of the Organisation of African Unity and its replacement by
19339-425: The 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People . He was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the 1956 Treason Trial . Influenced by Marxism , he secretly joined the banned South African Communist Party (SACP). Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant uMkhonto we Sizwe in 1961 that led
19572-470: The 1976 Soweto uprising radicalised a generation of black activists and greatly bolstered the strength of the ANC's guerrilla force, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). From 1976 to 1987 MK carried out a series of successful bomb attacks targeting government facilities, transportation lines, power stations, and other civil infrastructure. South Africa's military often retaliated by raiding ANC safe houses in neighbouring states. The NP made several attempts to reform
19805-507: The ANC and Communist Party —and Nat Bregman, a Jewish communist who became his first white friend. Mandela attended Communist Party gatherings, where he was impressed that Europeans , Africans , Indians , and Coloureds mixed as equals. He later stated that he did not join the party because its atheism conflicted with his Christian faith, and because he saw the South African struggle as being racially based rather than as class warfare . To continue his higher education, Mandela signed up to
20038-583: The ANC and NIC increased and strengthened through the Defiance Campaign. Support for the ANC and its endeavours increased. On 15 August 1953, at the Cape ANC conference in Cradock, Professor Z. K. Matthews proposed a national convention of the people to study the national problems on an all-inclusive basis and outline a manifesto of amity. In March 1954, the ANC, the South African Indian Congress (SAIC),
20271-569: The ANC and PAC; in March, they arrested Mandela and other activists, imprisoning them for five months without charge in the unsanitary conditions of the Pretoria Local prison. Imprisonment caused problems for Mandela and his co-defendants in the Treason Trial; their lawyers could not reach them, and so it was decided that the lawyers would withdraw in protest until the accused were freed from prison when
20504-432: The ANC and its Tripartite Alliance . Zwelinzima Vavi of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) was an outspoken critic of Mbeki's "market-friendly" economic policies, claiming that Mbeki's "flirtation" with neoliberalism had been "absolutely disastrous" for development, and especially for the labour-intensive development required to address South Africa's high unemployment rate. The discord between Mbeki and
20737-463: The ANC and other political organisations would be unbanned, and ANC exiles began to return to South Africa. At the same time that it was to negotiate the end of apartheid , the ANC had to implement a significant internal reorganisation, absorbing into its official exile bodies the domestic ANC underground, released political prisoners, and other activists from the trade unions and the United Democratic Front . It also had an ageing leadership, meaning that
20970-480: The ANC to coordinate underground militant activity throughout South Africa. By the end of 1962 the ANC established an MK high command consisting of Mandela, Sisulu, Govan Mbeki , Raymond Mhlaba , and prominent South African Communist Party (SACP) activist Joe Slovo . Slovo and the SACP were instrumental in bolstering MK and developing its tactics for guerrilla warfare, inciting insurrection and urban sabotage. White SACP members such as Jack Hodgson, who had served in
21203-566: The ANC was able to launch several successful guerrilla attacks against the South African Defense Force from their locations in-hiding. For example, On 20 May 1983, the ANC detonated a car bomb outside the South African Air Force headquarters in Pretoria, killing 19 people and injuring more than 200. The attack was one of the deadliest in the ANC's armed struggle against Apartheid. On 30 January 1981, ANC guerrillas launched
21436-485: The ANC won by a significant majority, Mbeki was elected president of South Africa . He was re-elected for a second term in 2002. Ours is a capitalist society. It is therefore inevitable that, in part – and I repeat, in part – we must address this goal of deracialisation within the context of the property relations characteristic [of] a capitalist economy. — Mbeki in 1999 Mbeki had been highly involved in economic policy as deputy president, especially in spearheading
21669-458: The ANC's National Executive on the eve of the Congress. Among the organisations present were the Indian Congress and the ANC. The Freedom Charter articulated a vision for South Africa that radically differed from the partition policy of apartheid. It: The congress delegates had consented to almost all the sections of the charter when the police announced that they suspected treason and recorded
21902-584: The ANC's National Executive that year, the ANCYL advocated a radical black nationalist programme that combined the Africanist ideas of Anton Lembede with Marxism . They proposed that white authority could only be overthrown through mass campaigns. The ideals of the ANC and ANCYL are stated in the ANC official web site and state, concerning the Tripartite Alliance: "The Alliance is founded on a common commitment to
22135-453: The ANC's executive to adopt armed struggle. Mandela first advocated this option during the Defiance Campaign of 1952, but his proposal was rejected by his fellow activists for being too radical. However, with the subsequent success of revolutionary struggles in Cuba , French Indochina , and French Algeria , the ANC executive became increasingly more open to suggestions by Mandela and Sisulu that it
22368-804: The ANC's leadership. Over the next three years, Ramaphosa also came to eclipse Mbeki as the party's central negotiator when he, not Mbeki, was appointed to lead the ANC's delegation to the CODESA talks. Once SACP leader Chris Hani was assassinated in April 1993, Ramaphosa became Mbeki's primary competition in the ANC succession battle. When Tambo died later the same month, Mbeki succeeded him as ANC national chairperson. Well, I don't imagine that there's any such requirement. I mean, he's got very big feet. The shoes will be too big. What does that mean? Does it mean we start off by going to jail for 27 years and then sort of graduate from there, grow taller, wear strange shirts? It's not
22601-480: The ANC's longest-serving president, and he acted as Mbeki's "political mentor and patron" until his death in 1993. Other friends Mbeki made in England, including Ronnie Kasrils and brothers Essop Pahad and Aziz Pahad , were also among his key political allies in his later career. In February 1969, Mbeki was sent to Moscow in the Soviet Union to receive Marxist–Leninist political and ideological training –
22834-448: The ANC's official representative in several of its African outposts. He was an early advocate for and leader of the diplomatic engagements which led to the negotiations to end apartheid . After South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, he was appointed national deputy president. In subsequent years, it became apparent that he was Mandela's chosen successor, and he was elected unopposed as ANC president in 1997, enabling his rise to
23067-461: The ANC. Mbeki joined the ANC Youth League at age fourteen and in 1958 became the secretary of its Lovedale branch. Shortly afterwards, at the start of his final year of high school, he was identified as one of the leaders of a March 1959 boycott of classes, and was summarily expelled from Lovedale. He nonetheless sat for matric examinations and obtained a second-class pass. In June 1960, Mbeki moved to Johannesburg , where he lived in
23300-480: The ANC. The agreement allowed the ANC to open an office in Zimbabwe and to move MK weapons and cadres over Zimbabwean borders; moreover, it committed the Zimbabwean military to assisting the ANC, and the government to providing MK cadres with Zimbabwean identity documents. However, Mbeki handed the running of the Salisbury office over to another ANC official, and the deal later collapsed. In 1985, PW Botha declared
23533-503: The ANCYL, considering their ideology un-African. In 1947, Mandela was elected to the executive committee of the ANC's Transvaal Province branch, serving under regional president C. S. Ramohanoe. When Ramohanoe acted against the wishes of the committee by co-operating with Indians and communists, Mandela was one of those who forced his resignation. In the South African general election in 1948 , in which only whites were permitted to vote,
23766-455: The African continent. Simultaneously, however, he argued for increased developmental aid to Africa. He called for Western leaders to address global apartheid and unequal development, most memorably in a speech to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002. Although Mbeki also forged strategic individual relationships with key African leaders, especially
23999-585: The Afrikaner-dominated Herenigde Nasionale Party under Daniel François Malan took power, soon uniting with the Afrikaner Party to form the National Party . Openly racialist , the party codified and expanded racial segregation with new apartheid legislation . Gaining increasing influence in the ANC, Mandela and his party cadre allies began advocating direct action against apartheid, such as boycotts and strikes, influenced by
24232-672: The Coloured People's Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats (SACOD) and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) met and founded the National Action Council for the Congress of the People. Delegates were drawn from each of these establishments and a nationwide organiser was assigned. A campaign was publicised for the drafting of a freedom charter, and asked for 10,000 volunteers to help with
24465-667: The Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burundi. Outside Africa, Mbeki was the chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement between 1999 and 2003 and the chairperson of the Group of 77 + China in 2006. He also pursued South -South solidarity in a coalition with India and Brazil under the IBSA Dialogue Forum , which was launched in June 2003 and held its first summit in September 2006. The IBSA countries together pressed for changes in
24698-594: The Education and Cultural Advancement of African People of South Africa before expanding into a political administration with Biko as its honorary president. When the BCM's principles were revealed, a number of fresh organisations staunch in their endorsement of black liberation were founded. The Azanian People's Organisation was only launched in 1978, a long time after the birth of the Black Consciousness Movement, as
24931-530: The Extension of University Education Act of 1959, which guaranteed that black and white students would be taught individually and inequitably. After the Rivonia Trial and the banning of the ANC and PAC, the struggle within South Africa was significantly suppressed. The age bracket that had seen the Sharpeville massacre became apathetic. A revival in anti-apartheid sentiment came in the late 1960s and mid-1970s from
25164-628: The MK constitution. Although in later life Mandela denied, for political reasons, ever being a member of the Communist Party, historical research published in 2011 strongly suggested that he had joined in the late 1950s or early 1960s. This was confirmed by both the SACP and the ANC after Mandela's death. According to the SACP, he was not only a member of the party, but also served on its Central Committee. We of Umkhonto have always sought to achieve liberation without bloodshed and civil clash. Even at this late hour, we hope that our first actions will awaken everyone to
25397-603: The NP's bigoted policies and the repression of the black people. During the 1970s, resistance grew stronger through trade unions and strikes, and was then spearheaded by the South African Students' Organisation under Steve Biko 's leadership. A medical student, Biko was the main force behind the growth of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), which stressed the need for psychological liberation, black pride , and non-violent opposition to apartheid. The BCM faction
25630-471: The National Party reacted to increased external pressure and the atmosphere of political unrest. Leading ANC officials such as Govan Mbeki and Walter Sisulu were released from prison between 1987 and 1989, and in 1990 the ANC and PAC were formally delisted as banned organisations by President F. W. de Klerk , and Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The same year, MK reached a formal ceasefire with
25863-515: The PAC and Poqo. The PAC did not have adequate direction. Many PAC principals were taken into custody on 21 March 1960, and those released were hampered by bans. When Robert Sobukwe (who was jailed following the Sharpeville massacre) was discharged from Robben Island in 1969, he was placed under house arrest in Kimberley until he died in 1978. Police repeatedly lengthened his incarceration through
26096-523: The PAC. The Sharpeville Massacre persuaded several anti-apartheid movements that nonviolent civil disobedience alone was ineffective at encouraging the National Party government to seek reform. The resurgent tide of armed revolutions in many developing nations and European colonial territories during the early 1960s gave ANC and PAC leaders the idea that nonviolent civil disobedience should be complemented by acts of insurrection and sabotage. Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu were instrumental in persuading
26329-585: The Pretoria Central Prison, and the other seven were imprisoned on Robben Island. Bram Fischer , the defence trial attorney, was also arrested and tried shortly thereafter. The instructions that Mandela gave to make MK an African force were ignored: it continued to be organised and led by the SACP. The trial was condemned by the United Nations Security Council and was a major force in the introduction of international sanctions against
26562-460: The SACP. Thus the ANC instructed him to join the growing cohort of cadres who were leaving South Africa to evade police attention, receive training, and establish the overt ANC structures that were now illegal inside the country. Mbeki was detained twice by the police while attempting to leave the country, first in Rustenberg , when the group he was travelling with failed to pass themselves off as
26795-556: The South African Army during World War II, were instrumental in training MK recruits. The SACP was also able to secure promises of military aid from the Soviet Union for the fledgling guerrilla army, and purchased Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia , just outside Johannesburg, to serve as MK's headquarters. Throughout the 1960s, MK was still a relatively small unit of poorly equipped guerrilla fighters incapable of taking significant action against
27028-514: The South African Student's Movement (SASM). It was particularly popular in Soweto, where the 1976 insurrection against Bantu Education would prove to be a crossroads in the fight against apartheid. Biko was taken into custody on 18 August 1977 and brutally tortured by unidentified security personnel until he lapsed into a coma. He was not medically treated for three days and died in Pretoria. At
27261-503: The South African government. After Sharpeville the ANC and PAC were banned. The SACP denied it existed, having dissolved in 1950 to escape banning as the CPSA. Leaders like Mandela and Sobukwe were either in jail or in exile. Consequently, there were serious mutinies in Angolan camps by Soweto and Cape student recruits angry at the corrupt and brutal consequences of minority control. The government
27494-491: The South African government. These talks led to the unbanning of the ANC and the release of political prisoners. He also participated in many of the other important negotiations between the ANC and the government that eventually led to the democratisation of South Africa. As a sign of goodwill, de Klerk set free a few of the ANC's top leadership at the end of 1989, among them Govan Mbeki . On 2 February 1990, Botha's successor as state president, F. W. de Klerk , announced that
27727-432: The South African security forces. Success of the MK's strategy depended on its ability to stoke the anger of a politically conscious black underclass and its armed struggle was essentially a strategic attempt at mass socialisation.This reflected the principles of Leninist vanguardism which heavily influenced SACP and ANC political theory to a lesser extent. MK commanders hoped that through their actions, they could appeal to
27960-670: The administration was multiracial, it was not addressing many of the issues of the mounting number of black students since 1960. This resulted in the 1967 creation of the University Christian Movement (UCM), an organisation rooted in African-American philosophy. In July 1967, the annual NUSAS symposium took place at Rhodes University in Grahamstown . White students were permitted to live on university grounds, but black students were relegated to accommodation further away in
28193-514: The agricultural subsidy regimes of developed countries at the 2003 World Trade Organisation conference , and also pressed for reforms at the UN which would allow developing countries a stronger role. Indeed, Mbeki had called for reform at the UN as early as 1999 and 2000. In 2007, following a prolonged diplomatic campaign, South Africa secured a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for
28426-664: The allegations and fought for custody of their children. She withdrew her petition of separation in November, but Mandela filed for divorce in January 1958; the divorce was finalised in March, with the children placed in Evelyn's care. During the divorce proceedings, he began courting a social worker, Winnie Madikizela , whom he married in Bizana in June 1958. She later became involved in ANC activities, spending several weeks in prison. Together they had two children: Zenani , born in February 1959, and Zindziswa (1960–2020). In December 1956, Mandela
28659-544: The apartheid system, beginning with the Constitutional Referendum of 1983 . This introduced the Tricameral Parliament , which allowed for some parliamentary representation of Coloureds and Indians , but continued to deny political rights to black South Africans. The resulting controversy triggered a new wave of anti-apartheid social movements and community groups which articulated their interests through
28892-628: The approach of the National Forum, which believed that the struggle should hold little or no place for whites. The ideal of blacks leading the resistance campaign was an important aim of the traditional Black Consciousness groups, and it shaped the thinking of many 1980s activists, especially those in the workforce. Furthermore, the NF focused on workers' issues, which became more and more important to BC supporters. Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki ( Xhosa: [tʰaɓɔ ʼmbɛːki] ; born 18 June 1942)
29125-493: The back. Many witnesses stated that the crowd was not violent, but Colonel J. Pienaar, the senior police officer in charge on the day, said: "Hordes of natives surrounded the police station. My car was struck with a stone. If they do these things they must learn their lesson the hard way." The event became known as the Sharpeville massacre . In the aftermath the government banned the African National Congress (ANC) and
29358-498: The base. In Swaziland, he lived at Stanley Mabizela's family home in Manzini . Working with Albert Dhlomo, Mbeki was responsible for helping to re-establish underground ANC networks in the South African provinces of Natal and Transvaal , which shared a border with Swaziland. His counterpart inside South Africa was MK operative Jacob Zuma , who ran the Natal underground. According to Gevisser,
29591-531: The best-known black political figures in South Africa. With further protests, the ANC's membership grew from 20,000 to 100,000 members; the government responded with mass arrests and introduced the Public Safety Act, 1953 to permit martial law . In May, authorities banned Transvaal ANC president J. B. Marks from making public appearances; unable to maintain his position, he recommended Mandela as his successor. Although Africanists opposed his candidacy, Mandela
29824-613: The camaraderie and scenery of the island. Getting on well with Pollsmoor's commanding officer, Brigadier Munro, Mandela was permitted to create a roof garden ; he also read voraciously and corresponded widely, now being permitted 52 letters a year. He was appointed patron of the multi-racial United Democratic Front (UDF), founded to combat reforms implemented by South African president P. W. Botha . Botha's National Party government had permitted Coloured and Indian citizens to vote for their own parliaments, which had control over education, health and housing, but black Africans were excluded from
30057-491: The campaign, almost 8,000 black and Indian people had been detained; at the same time, ANC membership grew from 7,000 to 100,000, and the number of subdivisions went from 14 at the campaign's beginning to 87 at its end. There was also a change in leadership: shortly before the campaign ended, Albert Luthuli was elected as the new ANC president. By the end of the campaign, the government was forced to temporarily relax its apartheid legislation. Once things had calmed down, however,
30290-429: The carnage in Soweto the ANC's Nelson Mandela grudgingly concurred that bloodshed was the only means left to convince the NP to accede to commands for an end to its apartheid policy. A subversive plan of terror was mapped out, with Biko and the BCM at the forefront. The BCM and other opinionated elements were prohibited during the 1970s because the government saw them as dangerous. Black Consciousness in South Africa adopted
30523-480: The causal link between HIV and AIDS, he often posited a need to investigate alternate causes of and alternative treatments for AIDS, frequently suggesting that immunodeficiency was the indirect result of poverty. His political descent began at the ANC's Polokwane conference in December 2007, when he was replaced as ANC president by Zuma. His term as national president was not due to expire until June 2009, but, on 20 September 2008, he announced that he would resign at
30756-602: The centre of Washington Consensus -style reforms. It was therefore viewed by some as a "policy reversal" and embrace of neoliberalism , and thus as an abandonment of the ANC's socialist principles. Mbeki also emphasised communication between government, business, and labour, establishing four working groups – for big business, black business, trade unions, and commercial agriculture – under which ministers, senior officials, and Mbeki himself met regularly with business and union leaders to build trust and explore solutions to structural economic problems. Conservative groups such as
30989-403: The communists. Despite his friendships with non-blacks and communists, Mandela embraced Lembede's views, believing that black Africans should be entirely independent in their struggle for political self-determination. Deciding on the need for a youth wing to mass-mobilise Africans in opposition to their subjugation, Mandela was among a delegation that approached ANC president Alfred Bitini Xuma on
31222-574: The compound of the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association , living among miners of various tribes; as the compound was visited by various chiefs, he once met the Queen Regent of Basutoland . In late 1941, Jongintaba visited Johannesburg—there forgiving Mandela for running away—before returning to Thembuland, where he died in the winter of 1942. After he passed his BA exams in early 1943, Mandela returned to Johannesburg to follow
31455-501: The concept of a dual or two-track economy in South Africa, with severe underdevelopment in one segment of the population, and, for example in a 2003 newsletter, argued that high growth alone would only benefit the developed segment, without significant trickle-down benefits for the rest of the population. Yet, somewhat paradoxically, he explicitly advocated state support for the creation of a black capitalist class in South Africa. The government's black economic empowerment policy, which
31688-753: The conference. After the symposium, he travelled to Cairo , Egypt, admiring the political reforms of President Gamal Abdel Nasser , and in April 1962 he went to Morocco where asked El Khatib to meet the king to ask him to give him £5,000. The next day he got the £5,000 along with some weapons and training to Mandela's soldier, and then went to Tunis , Tunisia, where President Habib Bourguiba gave him £5,000 for weaponry. He proceeded to Morocco, Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Senegal, receiving funds from Liberian president William Tubman and Guinean president Ahmed Sékou Touré . He left Africa for London, England, where he met anti-apartheid activists, reporters and prominent politicians. Upon returning to Ethiopia, he began
31921-516: The conscription of views across the country and the Congress of the People. Demands were documented and sent to the local board of the National Action Council in preparation for drafting the Charter. The Congress of the People was held 25–26 June 1955 in Kliptown , south of Johannesburg . 3,000 delegates gathered under police watch to revise and accept the Freedom Charter that had been endorsed by
32154-423: The country and black people disregarded racial laws; for example, they walked through "whites only" entries. At the campaign's zenith in September 1952, more than 2,500 people from 24 different towns were arrested for defying various laws. After five months, the African and Indian Congresses decided to call off the campaign because of the increasing number of riots, strikes and heavier sentences on participants. During
32387-403: The country, earning him the moniker "The Black Pimpernel". Mandela initially avoided arrest within South Africa, but in August 1962, after receiving some inside information, the police put up a roadblock and captured him. MK's success declined with his arrest and the police infiltrated the organisation. In July 1963, the police found the location of the MK headquarters at Lilliesleaf. They raided
32620-465: The cover of attending a UN conference. As part of this reconnaissance trip, he and his colleague Max Sisulu spent time with S'bu Ndebele , Max's sister Lindiwe Sisulu , and their associates in the Black Consciousness movement , which at the time was ascendent in neighbouring South Africa. Mbeki made a positive report to the ANC executive, and he was sent back to Swaziland to begin establishing
32853-407: The crowd was estimated to be 20,000 people. The crowd converged on the Sharpeville police station, singing and offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books. A group of police officers panicked and opened fire on the demonstrators shortly after the crowd approached the police station, killing 69 people and injuring 186. All the victims were black, and most of them had been shot in
33086-468: The early 1980s, Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and Aziz Pahad were appointed by Tambo to conduct private talks with representatives of the National Party government. Twelve meetings between the parties took place between November 1987 and May 1990, most of them held at Mells Park House , a country house near Bath in Somerset, England . By September 1989, the team secretly met with Maritz Spaarwater and Mike Louw in
33319-469: The ensuing Rivonia Trial , Mbeki appeared before the United Nations (UN) Special Committee on Apartheid and later led a student march from Brighton to London, a distance of fifty miles. At the conclusion of the trial, Govan and seven other ANC leaders, among them Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu , were sentenced to life imprisonment . Mbeki completed his bachelor's degree in economics in May 1965 but, at
33552-511: The exhortation of O. R. Tambo , enrolled for a Master's in economics and development instead of returning to Africa to join Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC's armed wing. His Master's dissertation was in economic geography . In addition to this and his political organising, he developed a deep fondness for Yeats , Brecht , Shakespeare , and blues music . After completing his Master's, in October 1966 he moved to London to work full-time for
33785-410: The farm and arrested many major leaders of the ANC and MK, including Sisulu, Mbeki and Ahmed Kathrada . They were detained and indicted with sabotage and attempting to bring down the government. At the same time, police collected evidence to be used in the trial that allowed them to arrest others like Denis Goldberg . Particularly damaging was the information on Operation Mayibuye (Operation Comeback),
34018-458: The façade of mere separation; it gave the owners of public amenities the right to bar people on the basis of colour or race and made it lawful for different races to be treated inequitably. Sisulu, Mandela, Albert Luthuli , other famous ANC members, Indian Congress, and trade union chiefs' activities were all proscribed under the Suppression of Communism Act. The proscription meant that the headship
34251-529: The government discovered that Mbeki was involved in military activity inside Swaziland, and he and Dhlomo – as well as Zuma, who was in the country illegally – were detained and then deported , though they managed to negotiate their deportation to the neutral territory of Mozambique rather than to South Africa. Mbeki's management of the Swaziland base later became a point of contention between him and Mac Maharaj , with whom his relationship has remained acrimonious decades later. In 1978, Maharaj and Mbeki argued at
34484-719: The government responded harshly and took several extreme measures, among which were the Unlawful Organisations Act, the Suppression of Communism Act , the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Procedures Act. Criminal Law Amendment Act No 8 stated that "[any] person who in any way whatsoever advises, encourages, incites, commands, aids or procures any other person ... or uses language calculated to cause any other person to commit an offence by way of protest against
34717-485: The government with minimum casualties; they sought to bomb military installations, power plants, telephone lines, and transport links at night, when civilians were not present. Mandela stated that they chose sabotage because it was the least harmful action, did not involve killing, and offered the best hope for racial reconciliation afterwards; he nevertheless acknowledged that should this have failed then guerrilla warfare might have been necessary. Soon after ANC leader Luthuli
34950-404: The government; their chief prosecutor was Percy Yutar . Judge Quartus de Wet soon threw out the prosecution's case for insufficient evidence, but Yutar reformulated the charges, presenting his new case from December 1963 until February 1964, calling 173 witnesses and bringing thousands of documents and photographs to the trial. Although four of the accused denied involvement with MK, Mandela and
35183-462: The heads of state of Nigeria, Algeria, Mozambique, and Tanzania, perhaps his central foreign policy instrument was multilateral cooperation . Mbeki's government, and Mbeki personally, are frequently cited as the single most significant driving force behind the creation in 2001 of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which aims to develop a framework for accelerating economic development and cooperation in Africa. Olivier calls Mbeki
35416-514: The home of ANC secretary general Duma Nokwe and where he intended to sit for A-level examinations. The ANC had recently been banned in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre , but Mbeki remained highly politically active, becoming national secretary of the African Students' Association, a new (and short-lived) youth movement envisaged as replacing the now illegal ANC Youth League. It was also during this period that Nokwe recruited Mbeki into
35649-458: The idea of a classless society which, to [his] mind, was similar to traditional African culture where life was shared and communal." In April 1952, Mandela began work at the H.M. Basner law firm, which was owned by a communist, although his increasing commitment to work and activism meant he spent less time with his family. In 1952, the ANC began preparation for a joint Defiance Campaign against apartheid with Indian and communist groups, founding
35882-494: The idea of a multi-racial front against apartheid. Influenced by friends like Moses Kotane and by the Soviet Union 's support for wars of national liberation , his mistrust of communism broke down and he began reading literature by Karl Marx , Vladimir Lenin , and Mao Zedong , eventually embracing the Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism . Commenting on communism, he later stated that he "found [himself] strongly drawn to
36115-596: The initiation of relationships with many of the domestic activists who later became his political allies. Moreover, he was responsible for innovating some of the vocabulary which became emblematic of the 1980s anti-apartheid struggle, which burgeoned in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto uprising . Such phrases as "mass democratic movement," "people's power," and the exhortation to " make the country ungovernable " are attributed to Mbeki, and gained widespread popularity inside South Africa through Radio Freedom broadcasts written by DIP or by Mbeki personally. Zuma has said that it
36348-504: The intolerance that comes from many who share that quality. They are loyal and true. They are their own harshest critics. They both have the gift to draw people to them... They were soul mates , different generations fusing at that particular time. — Adelaide Tambo reflects on Mbeki's relationship with O. R. Tambo , June 2002 He established some of his own high-level intelligence networks, with key underground operatives reporting directly to him, and Gevisser claims that these led to
36581-455: The latter bore him a child. Disgusted by her son's behaviour, Nosekeni returned to Transkei, while Evelyn embraced the Jehovah's Witnesses and rejected Mandela's preoccupation with politics. We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it
36814-534: The law... shall be guilty of an offence." In December 1952, Mandela, Sisulu and 18 others were tried under the Suppression of Communism Act for leading the Defiance Campaign . They received nine months' imprisonment, which was suspended for two years. The government also tightened the regulation of separate amenities. Protesters had argued to the courts that different amenities for different races ought to be of an equal standard. The Separate Amenities Act removed
37047-499: The left was on public display by December 2002, when Mbeki attacked what he called divisive "ultra-leftists" in a speech to the ANC's 51st National Conference . However, Mbeki clearly never subscribed to undiluted neoliberalism. He retained various social democratic programmes and principles, and generally endorsed a mixed economy in South Africa. One of the ANC's slogans in the campaign for his 2004 re-election was, "A people's contract for growth and development." He popularised
37280-498: The legacy of apartheid by fostering racial reconciliation . Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist , he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997. A Xhosa , Mandela was born into the Thembu royal family in Mvezo , South Africa. He studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand before working as
37513-521: The masses and inspire a popular uprising against the South African regime. A popular uprising would compensate for the MK's weaknesses as it offered a way to defeat the National Party politically without having to engage in a direct military confrontation which the guerrillas would have no hope of winning. On 16 December 1961, MK operatives bombed a number of public facilities in several major South African cities, namely Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban. This programme of controlled sabotage
37746-547: The military theorist Carl von Clausewitz . Although initially declared officially separate from the ANC so as not to taint the latter's reputation, MK was later widely recognised as the party's armed wing. Most early MK members were white communists who were able to conceal Mandela in their homes; after hiding in communist Wolfie Kodesh's flat in Berea , Mandela moved to the communist-owned Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia , there joined by Raymond Mhlaba , Slovo and Bernstein, who put together
37979-443: The monarch; he was appointed to the position in 1915, after his predecessor was accused of corruption by a governing white magistrate. In 1926, Gadla was also sacked for corruption, but Nelson was told that his father had lost his job for standing up to the magistrate's unreasonable demands. A devotee of the god Qamata , Gadla was a polygamist with four wives, four sons and nine daughters, who lived in different villages. Nelson's mother
38212-494: The names and addresses of all those present. In 1956, the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was founded and led by Lilian Ngoyi , Helen Joseph and Amina Cachalia . On 9 August that year, the women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria and protested against the pass laws. On the morning of 5 December 1956, the police detained 156 Congress Alliance leaders: 104 African, 23 white, 21 Indian and eight Coloured people. They were charged with high treason and plotting
38445-433: The objectives of the National Democratic Revolution , and the need to unite the largest possible cross-section of South Africans behind these objectives," citing the actionable intent and their goal to end oppression. When the ANCYL took control of the ANC, the organisation advocated a policy of open defiance and resistance for the first time, which unleashed the 1950s Programme of Action, instituted in 1949, that emphasised
38678-492: The other five accused admitted sabotage but denied that they had ever agreed to initiate guerrilla war against the government. They used the trial to highlight their political cause; at the opening of the defence's proceedings, Mandela gave his three-hour " I Am Prepared to Die " speech. That speech—which was inspired by Castro's " History Will Absolve Me "—was widely reported in the press despite official censorship. The trial gained international attention; there were global calls for
38911-433: The pair developed "an unlikely rapport." Mbeki was also responsible for recruiting new MK operatives, for liaising with South African student and labour activists, and for liaising with Inkatha, which was becoming dominant in Natal. However, still another part of his duties was to act as the ANC's official representative in the country, and to maintain good diplomatic relations with the Swazi government. In March 1976,
39144-477: The passes that they were legally obliged to carry . One of the PAC-organised demonstrations was fired upon by police, resulting in the deaths of 69 protesters in the Sharpeville massacre . The incident brought international condemnation of the government and resulted in rioting throughout South Africa, with Mandela publicly burning his pass in solidarity. Responding to the unrest, the government implemented state of emergency measures, declaring martial law and banning
39377-633: The people of South Africa". Following the end of a second ban in September 1955, Mandela went on a working holiday to Transkei to discuss the implications of the Bantu Authorities Act, 1951 with local Xhosa chiefs, also visiting his mother and Noengland before proceeding to Cape Town . In March 1956, he received his third ban on public appearances, restricting him to Johannesburg for five years, but he often defied it. Mandela's marriage broke down and Evelyn left him, taking their children to live with her brother. Initiating divorce proceedings in May 1956, she claimed that Mandela had physically abused her; he denied
39610-567: The presidency as the ANC's candidate in the 1999 elections . While deputy president, Mbeki had been regarded as a steward of the government's Growth, Employment and Redistribution policy, introduced in 1996, and as president he continued to subscribe to relatively conservative, market-friendly macroeconomic policies. During his presidency, South Africa experienced falling public debt , a narrowing budget deficit , and consistent, moderate economic growth. However, despite his retention of various social democratic programmes, and notable expansions to
39843-434: The press—a reference to Emma Orczy 's 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel —a warrant for his arrest was put out by the police. Mandela held secret meetings with reporters, and after the government failed to prevent the strike, he warned them that many anti-apartheid activists would soon resort to violence through groups like the PAC's Poqo . He believed that the ANC should form an armed group to channel some of this violence in
40076-447: The prison on Robben Island , remaining there for the next 18 years. Isolated from non-political prisoners in Section B, Mandela was imprisoned in a damp concrete cell measuring 8 feet (2.4 m) by 7 feet (2.1 m), with a straw mat on which to sleep. Verbally and physically harassed by several white prison wardens, the Rivonia Trial prisoners spent their days breaking rocks into gravel, until being reassigned in January 1965 to work in
40309-529: The prosecution withdrew its indictment, submitting a reformulated version in November which argued that the ANC leadership committed high treason by advocating violent revolution, a charge the defendants denied. In April 1959, Africanists dissatisfied with the ANC's united front approach founded the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC); Mandela disagreed with the PAC's racially exclusionary views, describing them as "immature" and "naïve". Both parties took part in an anti-pass campaign in early 1960, in which Africans burned
40542-424: The ranks to head the ANC's Department of International Affairs and was involved in the ANC's negotiations with the South African government. Mbeki played a major role in turning the international media against apartheid. Raising the diplomatic profile of the ANC, Mbeki acted as a point of contact for foreign governments and international organisations and he was extremely successful in this position. Mbeki also played
40775-454: The release of the accused from the United Nations and World Peace Council , while the University of London Union voted Mandela to its presidency. On 12 June 1964, justice De Wet found Mandela and two of his co-accused guilty on all four charges; although the prosecution had called for the death sentence to be applied, the judge instead condemned them to life imprisonment . In 1964, Mandela and his co-accused were transferred from Pretoria to
41008-524: The request of the ANC National Executive Committee. The ANC's decision to "recall" Mbeki was understood to be linked to a high court judgement, handed down earlier that month, in which judge Chris Nicholson had alleged improper political interference in the National Prosecuting Authority and specifically in the corruption charges against Zuma . Nicholson's judgement was overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal in January 2009, by which time Mbeki had been replaced as president by Kgalema Motlanthe . Mbeki
41241-470: The right denounced him as a communist terrorist and those on the far left deemed him too eager to negotiate and reconcile with apartheid's supporters, he gained international acclaim for his activism. Globally regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice , he received more than 250 honours , including the Nobel Peace Prize . He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Thembu clan name , Madiba, and described as
41474-401: The right of the African people to freedom under the flag of African Nationalism. It laid out plans for strikes , boycotts , and civil disobedience , resulting in mass protests, stay-aways , boycotts, strikes and occasional violent clashes. The 1950 May Day stay-away was a strong, successful expression of black grievances. In 1952, the Joint Planning Council, made up of members from the ANC,
41707-406: The role of ambassador to the steady flow of delegates from the elite sectors of white South Africa. These included academics, clerics, business people and representatives of liberal white groups who travelled to Lusaka to assess the ANC's views on a democratic, free South Africa. Mbeki was seen as pragmatic, eloquent, rational and urbane. He was known for his diplomatic style and sophistication. In
41940-430: The ruling National Party (NP) government, coupled with South Africa's growing international isolation and economic sanctions, were instrumental in leading to negotiations to end apartheid , which began formally in 1990 and ended with South Africa's first multiracial elections under a universal franchise in 1994. Apartheid was adopted as a formal South African government policy by the NP following their victory in
42173-455: The secrecy of earlier years and openly gave interviews and access to American journalists, to the disapproval of some hardline communists. According to various sources, he was responsible for reforming the public image of the ANC from that of a terrorist organisation to that of a "government-in-waiting." When I look at Thabo, I look at my husband's son. Physically, they bear a striking resemblance... They are both perfectionists, but without
42406-482: The standard of their food was raised. In 1969, an escape plan for Mandela was developed by Gordon Bruce, but it was abandoned after the conspiracy was infiltrated by an agent of the South African Bureau of State Security (BOSS), who hoped to see Mandela shot during the escape. In 1970, Commander Piet Badenhorst became commanding officer. Mandela, seeing an increase in the physical and mental abuse of prisoners, complained to visiting judges, who had Badenhorst reassigned. He
42639-412: The state of emergency was lifted in late August 1960. Over the following months, Mandela used his free time to organise an All-In African Conference near Pietermaritzburg , Natal , in March 1961, at which 1,400 anti-apartheid delegates met, agreeing on a stay-at-home strike to mark 31 May, the day South Africa became a republic. On 29 March 1961, six years after the Treason Trial began, the judges produced
42872-436: The strike because it was multi-racial and not ANC-led, but a majority of black workers took part, resulting in increased police repression and the introduction of the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 , affecting the actions of all protest groups. At the ANC national conference of December 1951, he continued arguing against a racially united front, but was outvoted. Thereafter, Mandela rejected Lembede's Africanism and embraced
43105-515: The struggle against apartheid, under the catchphrase " Liberation before education ". Black communities became highly politicised. The Black Consciousness Movement began to change its focus during the 1980s from issues of nation and community to issues of class; as a result, they may have made of an impact than in the mid-1970s, though there is some evidence to suggest that it retained at least some influence, particularly in workers' organisations. The role of Black Consciousness could be clearly seen in
43338-458: The subject at his home in Sophiatown ; the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was founded on Easter Sunday 1944 in the Bantu Men's Social Centre , with Lembede as president and Mandela as a member of its executive committee. At Sisulu's house, Mandela met Evelyn Mase , a trainee nurse and ANC activist from Engcobo, Transkei. Entering a relationship and marrying in October 1944, they initially lived with her relatives until moving into
43571-441: The subsequent inquest, the magistrate ruled that no-one was culpable, but the South African Medical Association eventually took action against the doctors who had failed to treat Biko. There was a strong reaction both within and outside South Africa. Foreign countries imposed even more stringent sanctions, and the United Nations imposed an arms embargo . Young blacks inside South Africa committed themselves even more fervently to
43804-507: The system. Like Mandela, the UDF saw this as an attempt to divide the anti-apartheid movement on racial lines. Internal resistance to apartheid Military stalemate between MK and South African security forces Bilateral negotiations to end apartheid Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and took forms ranging from social movements and passive resistance to guerrilla warfare . Mass action against
44037-494: The tactics already employed by South Africa's Indian community. Xuma did not support these measures and was removed from the presidency in a vote of no confidence , replaced by James Moroka and a more militant executive committee containing Sisulu, Mda, Tambo and Godfrey Pitje. Mandela later related that he and his colleagues had "guided the ANC to a more radical and revolutionary path." Having devoted his time to politics, Mandela failed his final year at Witwatersrand three times; he
44270-448: The time; prison authorities discovered several pages, and his LLB study privileges were revoked for four years. Instead, he devoted his spare time to gardening and reading until the authorities permitted him to resume his LLB degree studies in 1980. By the late 1960s, Mandela's fame had been eclipsed by Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). Seeing the ANC as ineffectual, the BCM called for militant action, but, following
44503-454: The trial to showcase "the ANC's moral opposition to racism" while supporters demonstrated outside the court. Moved to Pretoria, where Winnie could visit him, he began correspondence studies for a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of London International Programmes . His hearing began in October, but he disrupted proceedings by wearing a traditional kaross , refusing to call any witnesses, and turning his plea of mitigation into
44736-408: The trial, Mandela gave his " I am prepared to die " speech. In June 1964, eight were found guilty of terrorism, sabotage, planning and executing guerrilla warfare and working towards an armed invasion of the country. The treason charge was dropped and all eight were sentenced to life imprisonment. They did not get the death penalty, as it received too much international criticism. Goldberg was sent to
44969-427: The vote in the 1994 South African election. The widely publicised Rivonia Trial began in October 1963. Ten men were accused of treason for trying to depose the government and sabotage. Mandela, along with those arrested at Lilliesleaf and another 24 co-conspirators, were tried. Many of them, including Tambo, had already fled the country. The ANC used the lawsuit to draw international interest to its cause. During
45202-432: Was Gadla's third wife, Nosekeni Fanny, daughter of Nkedama of the Right Hand House and a member of the amaMpemvu clan of the Xhosa. No one in my family had ever attended school ... On the first day of school my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education. That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name
45435-571: Was Mbeki's HIV/AIDS policy. His government did not introduce a national mother-to-child transmission prevention programme until 2002, when it was mandated by the Constitutional Court , nor did it make antiretroviral therapy available in the public healthcare system until late 2003. Subsequent studies have estimated that these delays caused hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths. Mbeki himself, like his Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang , has been described as an AIDS denialist , "dissident," or sceptic. Although he did not explicitly deny
45668-596: Was Mbeki's "drafting skills" which enabled his ascendancy in the ANC and ultimately to the presidency. In 1980, Mbeki led the ANC's delegation to Zimbabwe, where the party hoped to establish relations with Robert Mugabe 's newly elected government. This was a sensitive mission, because the ANC had historically been strongly allied to the Zimbabwe African People's Union , the arch rival of Mugabe's ZANU-PF . Working primarily through Mugabe's righthand man, future Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa , Mbeki negotiated an extraordinarily congenial agreement between ZANU-PF and
45901-408: Was Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname. Because Mandela was the king's child by a wife of the Ixhiba clan, a so-called "Left-Hand House", the descendants of his cadet branch of the royal family were morganatic , ineligible to inherit the throne but recognised as hereditary royal councillors. Nelson Mandela's father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa Mandela, was a local chief and councillor to
46134-428: Was Nelson. Why this particular name, I have no idea. — Mandela, 1994 Mandela later stated that his early life was dominated by traditional Xhosa custom and taboo. He grew up with two sisters in his mother's kraal in the village of Qunu , where he tended herds as a cattle-boy and spent much time outside with other boys. Both his parents were illiterate, but his mother, being a devout Christian, sent him to
46367-418: Was a child, his family was separated when Govan moved alone to Ladismith for a teaching job. Mbeki has said that he was "born into the struggle ," and recalls that his childhood home was decorated with portraits of Karl Marx and Mahatma Gandhi . Indeed, Govan named him after senior South African communist Thabo Mofutsanyana . Mbeki began attending school in 1948, the same year that the National Party
46600-497: Was able to dismantle the ANC's power within South Africa's borders by incarcerating leaders of MK and the ANC, and greatly affect its efficiency outside of them. The ANC faced many problems in the aftermath of the Rivonia Trial, as its inner administration was severely damaged. By 1964, the ANC went into hiding and planned guerilla activities from overseas. At the end of the 1960s, new organisations and ideas would form to confront apartheid. The next key act of opposition came in 1976 with
46833-423: Was already seen as his most likely successor. In December 1997, the ANC's 50th National Conference elected Mbeki unopposed to succeed Mandela as ANC president. On some accounts, the election was not contested because the top leadership had prepared assiduously for the conference, lobbying and negotiating on Mbeki's behalf in the interest of unity and continuity. Pursuant to the 1999 national elections , which
47066-433: Was appointed head of the ANC's information department in 1984 and then became head of the international department in 1989, reporting directly to Oliver Tambo , then President of the ANC. Tambo was Mbeki's long-time mentor. In 1985, Mbeki was a member of a delegation that began meeting secretly with representatives of the South African business community, and in 1989, he led the ANC delegation that conducted secret talks with
47299-404: Was appointed to prosecute the case, and in February the judge ruled that there was "sufficient reason" for the defendants to go on trial in the Transvaal Supreme Court . The formal Treason Trial began in Pretoria in August 1958, with the defendants successfully applying to have the three judges—all linked to the governing National Party—replaced. In August, one charge was dropped, and in October
47532-404: Was arrested alongside most of the ANC national executive and accused of "high treason" against the state. Held in Johannesburg Prison amid mass protests, they underwent a preparatory examination before being granted bail. The defence's refutation began in January 1957, overseen by defence lawyer Vernon Berrangé , and continued until the case was adjourned in September. In January 1958, Oswald Pirow
47765-611: Was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize , MK publicly announced its existence with 57 bombings on Dingane's Day (16 December) 1961, followed by further attacks on New Year's Eve. The ANC decided to send Mandela as a delegate to the February 1962 meeting of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East, Central and Southern Africa (PAFMECSA) in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia. Leaving South Africa in secret via Bechuanaland , on his way Mandela visited Tanganyika and met with its president, Julius Nyerere . Arriving in Ethiopia, Mandela met with Emperor Haile Selassie I , and gave his speech after Selassie's at
47998-430: Was born on 18 June 1942 in Mbewuleni , a small village in the former homeland of Transkei , now part of the Eastern Cape . The second of four siblings, he had one sister, Linda (born 1941, died 2003), and two brothers, Moeletsi (born 1945) and Jama (born 1948, died 1982). His parents were Epainette (died 2014), a trained teacher, and Govan (died 2001), a shopkeeper, teacher, journalist, and senior activist in
48231-464: Was confiscated. 3,246 PAC and Poqo members were arrested. In 1968, PAC was expelled from Maseru (where it was allied with the opposition Basutoland Congress Party) and Zambia (which was friendlier to the ANC). Between 1974 and 1976 Leballo and Ntantala trained the Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA) and the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA) in Libya. American pressures split the PAC into a "reformist-diplomatic" group under Sibeko, Make, and Pokela, and
48464-473: Was criticised to be destructive and alien to Africa. Black people became conscious of their own distinctive identity and self-worth and grew more outspoken about their right to freedom. The National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) was the first organisation to represent students in South Africa, but it had a principally white membership, and black students saw this as an impediment. White students' concerns were more scholastic than political, and although
48697-428: Was denied. Although the Chinese government supported the anti-apartheid struggle, they believed the movement insufficiently prepared for guerrilla warfare . With the involvement of the South African Indian Congress , the Coloured People's Congress, the South African Congress of Trade Unions and the Congress of Democrats , the ANC planned a Congress of the People , calling on all South Africans to send in proposals for
48930-469: Was elected as acting president, he made a public statement that he would launch an attack on South African Police with an army of 150.000 cadres. A few days after that statement, he send two women PAC couriers, Cynthia Lichaba and Thabisa Lethala, to post letters in Ladybrand, a South African town near Lesotho. The letters contained instructions and details of Poqo cadres. The two women were arrested by Basutoland police and correspondence addressed to poqo cells
49163-422: Was elected onto the ANC's top decision-making organ, the National Executive Committee . It was during this period that he began to ghostwrite some of Tambo's speeches and reports, and he accompanied Tambo on important occasions, such as to the infamous December 1972 meeting with Mangosuthu Buthelezi , the head of Inkatha , in London. In 1973, he helped to establish the ANC's office in Botswana, considered
49396-438: Was elected to be regional president in October. In July 1952, Mandela was arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act and stood trial as one of the 21 accused—among them Moroka, Sisulu and Yusuf Dadoo —in Johannesburg. Found guilty of "statutory communism", a term that the government used to describe most opposition to apartheid, their sentence of nine months' hard labour was suspended for two years. In December, Mandela
49629-415: Was elected with a mandate to legislate apartheid . The Bantu Education Act was implemented towards the end of his school career, and in 1955 he arrived at the Lovedale Institute , an eminent mission school outside Alice , as part of the last class which would be permitted to follow the same curriculum as white students. At Lovedale, he was a year behind Chris Hani , his future colleague and rival in
49862-727: Was expanded and consolidated under his administration, was criticised precisely for benefitting only a small black elite and thereby failing to address inequality . According to academic and diplomat Gerrit Olivier , during his presidency Mbeki "succeeded in placing Africa high on the global agenda." He was known for his Pan-Africanism , having emphasised related themes both in his famous " I am an African " speech in 1996 and in his first speech to Parliament as president in June 1999, when he foregrounded his trademark ideal of an " African renaissance ." He advocated for greater solidarity among African countries and, in place of reliance on Western intervention and aid, for greater self-sufficiency for
50095-405: Was firmly opposed to forcible or manufactured regime change in Zimbabwe, and also opposed the use of sanctions. The Economist posited an "Mbeki doctrine" holding that South Africa "cannot impose its will on others, but it can help to deal with instability in African countries by offering its resources and its leadership to bring rival groups together, and to keep things calm until an election
50328-528: Was founded by Biko and materialised out of the ideas of the civil rights movement and Black Power movement in the USA. The motto of the movement was "Black is Beautiful", first made popular by boxer Mohammed Ali. BCM endorsed black pride and African customs, and did much to alter feelings of inadequacy while raising awareness of the fallacy of blacks being seen as inferior. It defied practices and merchandise that were meant to make black people "whiter", such as hair straighteners and skin lighteners. Western culture
50561-402: Was given a six-month ban from attending meetings or talking to more than one individual at a time, making his Transvaal ANC presidency impractical, and during this period the Defiance Campaign petered out. In September 1953, Andrew Kunene read out Mandela's "No Easy Walk to Freedom" speech at a Transvaal ANC meeting; the title was taken from a quote by Indian independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru ,
50794-524: Was initially classified as the lowest grade of prisoner, Class D, meaning that he was permitted one visit and one letter every six months, although all mail was heavily censored. The political prisoners took part in work and hunger strikes —the latter considered largely ineffective by Mandela—to improve prison conditions, viewing this as a microcosm of the anti-apartheid struggle. ANC prisoners elected him to their four-man "High Organ" along with Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Raymond Mhlaba, and he involved himself in
51027-408: Was launched with the Defiance Campaign in June 1952. By defying the laws, the organisation hoped to incite mass arrests that would overwhelm the government. Mandela led a crowd of 50 men down the streets of a white area in Johannesburg after the 11 pm curfew that forbade black people's presence. The group was apprehended, but the rest of the country followed its example. Defiance spread throughout
51260-421: Was not deliberately employed until 1959. That year, anger over pass laws and environmental regulations perceived as unjust by black farmers resulted in a series of arsons targeting sugarcane plantations. Organisations such as the ANC, the South African Communist Party , and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) remained preoccupied with organising student strikes and work boycotts between 1959 and 1960. Following
51493-411: Was not elected to any of the "Top Six" leadership positions. Sisulu was elected ANC deputy president, almost certainly as a compromise candidate, and trade unionist Cyril Ramaphosa was elected secretary general. According to historian Tom Lodge, Ramaphosa's election was a putsch carried out by the party's "internal wing," in defiance of the former exiles and political prisoners who had hitherto dominated
51726-431: Was notorious for its role in the repression of anti-apartheid activists. Prior to the 1960s, the NP government managed to quell much of the anti-apartheid opposition within South Africa by outlawing movements like the ANC and PAC, and driving their leaders into exile or captivity. Tertiary-education organisations such as the University of the North and Zululand University began to resist apartheid; they were fashioned by
51959-429: Was promoted again: he replaced Nokwe as head of DIP, and simultaneously was appointed Tambo's political secretary, an extremely influential position in which he became one of Tambo's closest advisors and confidantes. He also continued to ghostwrite for Tambo, now in a formal capacity. At DIP, his approach was encapsulated by the change he made to the department's name, replacing "propaganda" with "publicity." He eschewed
52192-437: Was replaced by Commander Willie Willemse, who developed a co-operative relationship with Mandela and was keen to improve prison standards. By 1975, Mandela had become a Class A prisoner, which allowed him greater numbers of visits and letters. He corresponded with anti-apartheid activists like Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Desmond Tutu . That year, he began his autobiography, which was smuggled to London, but remained unpublished at
52425-428: Was restricted to their homes and adjacent areas and they were banned from attending public gatherings. On the global stage, India demanded that apartheid be challenged by the United Nations, which led to the establishment of a UN commission on apartheid. Although the movement was subjected to increasing restrictions, it was still able to struggle against the oppressive instruments of the state. Collaboration between
52658-433: Was sent to Lusaka , Zambia, where the ANC-in-exile had set up its new headquarters under acting president Tambo. He was to fill the post of administrative secretary to the ANC Revolutionary Council , a body newly established to coordinate the political and military efforts of the ANC and SACP. He was later moved to the propaganda section, but continued to attend the council's meetings, and in 1975 he (again alongside Hani)
52891-408: Was suspended from the university; he never returned to complete his degree. Returning to Mqhekezweni in December 1940, Mandela found that Jongintaba had arranged marriages for him and Justice; dismayed, they fled to Johannesburg via Queenstown , arriving in April 1941. Mandela found work as a night watchman at Crown Mines, his "first sight of South African capitalism in action", but was fired when
53124-401: Was that the ANC papers were full of communist terms like " comrade " and " proletariat ", which are often found in the writings of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin . Halfway through the drawn-out trial, charges against 61 of the accused were withdrawn, and, five years after their arrest, the remaining 30 were acquitted after the court held that the state had failed to prove its case. In 1958
53357-453: Was these leftist elements which supported Jacob Zuma over Mbeki in the political rivalry that erupted after Mbeki removed the latter from his post as deputy president in 2005. As president, Mbeki had an apparent predilection for foreign policy and particularly for multilateralism . His Pan-Africanism and vision for an " African renaissance " are central parts of his political persona, and commentators suggest that he secured for South Africa
53590-423: Was time for armed struggle. From 1961 to 1963, the ground in South Africa was slowly being readied for armed revolution. A hierarchical network of covert ANC cells was created for underground operations, military aid solicited from sympathetic African states and the Soviet Union, and a guerrilla training camp established in Tanganyika . In June 1961, the uMkhonto we Sizwe (abbreviated as MK) had been set up by
53823-557: Was timed to coincide with the Day of the Vow , the anniversary of an important battle between the voortrekkers and the Zulu Kingdom in 1838. Over the next eighteen months, MK carried out 200 acts of sabotage, mostly targeting pass offices, power pylons, and police stations. In October 1962 the ANC publicly declared responsibility for the sabotage campaign and acknowledged the existence of MK. Mandela began planning for MK members to be given military training outside South Africa and slipped past authorities as he himself moved in and out of
54056-441: Was to be – as in Swaziland – the ANC's first representative to the country. Although there was some debate about whether the appointment was a signal that he had been sidelined, Gevisser says that Mbeki performed well in Lagos, establishing good relations with Olusegun Obasanjo 's regime and establishing an ANC presence to eclipse that of its rival Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). When he returned to Lusaka from Lagos in 1978, he
54289-422: Was ultimately denied his degree in December 1949. Mandela took Xuma's place on the ANC national executive in March 1950, and that same year was elected national president of the ANCYL. In March, the Defend Free Speech Convention was held in Johannesburg, bringing together African, Indian and communist activists to call a May Day general strike in protest against apartheid and white minority rule. Mandela opposed
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