Former South African President Nelson Mandela died aged 95

[karl]

Mr. Mandela has over his life time, worn many different hats. But most remembered for his political life and down fall of the South African Apartheide system.



Former South African president Nelson Mandela dies
Mary Fitzgerald

Last Updated: Friday, December 6, 2013, 01:13
Former South African president Nelson Mandela has died in his Johannesburg home aged 95.

The anti-apartheid icon had been ill with a lung infection for a prolonged period before he died peacefully tonight, president Jacob Zuma said.

In a televised address, Mr Zuma said: “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father. “What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves.”

A towering figure in 20th century history, Mr Mandela emerged from almost three decades in the prisons of apartheid-era South Africa to become the first black president of a country still struggling to overcome its divisions.

Born in a small village in the eastern Cape, Mr Mandela first became involved in activism against the white minority regime as a young law student. Joining the African National Congress (ANC) in 1942, he co-founded its Youth League two years later.

After the ANC abandoned its policy of non-violence following the shooting dead of 69 black protesters by police at Sharpeville in 1960, Mr Mandela helped establish its military wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe.

This turn to arms led to the banning of the ANC, and after 17 months on the run, Mr Mandela was arrested and charged with attempting to violently overthrow the government.

In a speech from the dock during his trial, Mr Mandela spoke of his vision for South Africa. “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities,” he said. “It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

The man many in South Africa refer to by his clan name “Madiba” was sentenced to life in 1964. He spent most of his imprisonment in Robben Island, a notorious maximum security facility on a small island off the coast of Cape Town.

Such was the apartheid regime’s animosity towards Mr Mandela that South African prime minister John Vorster famously said in 1975: “Anyone who wants to talk to me on the basis that Mandela is the leader of black South Africa can forget it.”

In the 1980s, Mr Mandela’s incarceration became a central theme in the global campaign against apartheid as defined by the slogan “Free Nelson Mandela” which was incorporated into several protest songs.

In 1990, the government of then president FW de Klerk responded to growing international pressure by releasing Mr Mandela and lifting the ban against the ANC. Mr Mandela and Mr de Klerk were later jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

After his release, Mr Mandela led the ANC in the multi-party negotiations that resulted in South Africa’s first multi-racial elections. Elected president with an overwhelming share of the vote, he went on oversee the country’s delicate transition from minority rule and apartheid.

As Mr Mandela outlined in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, his prison experience helped him reach the conclusion that there could be no democracy without reconciliation. He earned plaudits for his leadership and his willingness to reach out to his former opponents. His lack of bitterness over the long years he spent in jail drew admiration from across the world.

After stepping down as president in 1999, Mr Mandela continued to travel the globe as South Africa’s highest-profile son, meeting leaders and working on conflict resolution elsewhere in Africa.

The fight against Aids was a major concern for him, particularly after his son Makgatho died of the disease in 2005.

Mr Mandela also formed The Elders, a group of prominent figures including Ireland’s former president Mary Robinson, to address some of the world’s most intractable problems.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner had been at ease with his own mortality for many years.

“Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity,” he said in an interview for the 1994 documentary, Mandela.

*“Nelson Mandela: Life and Legacy” an 8-page supplement will be included in tomorrow’s Irish Times.*

© 2013 irishtimes.com

Presenter

Karl

[Nictoshek]

Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life for sabotage

C.I.A. TIE REPORTED IN MANDELA ARREST

By DAVID JOHNSTON, Special to The New York Times
Published: June 10, 1990

The Central Intelligence Agency played an important role in the arrest in 1962 of Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress leader who was jailed for nearly 28 years before his release four months ago, a news report says.

The intelligence service, using an agent inside the African National Congress, provided South African security officials with precise information about Mr. Mandela's activities that enabled the police to arrest him, said the account by the Cox News Service.

The report, scheduled for publication on Sunday, quoted an unidentified retired official who said that a senior C.I.A. officer told him shortly after Mr. Mandela's arrest: ''We have turned Mandela over to the South African Security branch. We gave them every detail, what he would be wearing, the time of day, just where he would be.''

Mark Mansfield, a spokesman for the agency, declined to comment on the news-service report. ''As a matter of policy, we do not discuss allegations of intelligence activities,'' he said.

Protecting Pretoria's Rule

Reports that American intelligence tipped off the South African officials who arrested Mr. Mandela have circulated for years. Newsweek reported in February that the agency was believed to have been involved.

Mr. Mandela is scheduled to visit the United States beginning June 20 for a five-city tour that will include talks with President Bush and a speech before a joint meeting of Congress.

The news-service report said that at the time of Mr. Mandela's arrest in August 1962, the C.I.A. devoted more resources to penetrating the activities of nationalist groups like the African National Congress than did South Africa's then-fledgling security service.

The account said the American intelligence agency was willing to assist in the apprehension of Mr. Mandela because it was concerned that a successful nationalist movement threatened a friendly South African Govenment. Expansion of such movements outside South Africa's borders, the agency feared, would jeopardize the stability of other African states, the account said.

Arrest at a Roadblock

A retired South African intelligence official, Gerard Ludi, was quoted in the report as saying that at the time of Mr. Mandela's capture, the C.I.A. had put an undercover agent into the inner circle of the African National Congress group in Durban.

That agent provided the intelligence service with detailed accounts of the organization's activities, including information on the whereabouts of Mr. Mandela, then being sought as a fugitive for his anti-apartheid activities.

The morning after a secret dinner party with other congress members in Durban, Mr. Mandela, dressed as a chauffeur, ran into a roadblock. He was immediately recognized and arrested.

The retired official said that because of concern over the propriety of the C.I.A.'s actions in the Mandela case, ''higher authorities'' required that the State Department approve any similar operations in the future. The report said the State Department refused on at least three occasions to allow the agency to provide South African officials with information about other dissidents.

Nelson Mandela's life

[kaima]

There are already reports of his early terroristic activities, seemingly publicized by his enemies or simply people who dislike him.

I see this as good, and wish we were more honest in America about the background of our much vaunted "heroes". We place ours on pedestals and pretend they had no evil, weak or "undesirable" side to their person. In Mandela's case it was his desperation to bring justice and equality to South Africa through violence in the early part of his life.

I wonder what the British histories of the American Revolution read like, and what tales of terrorism they carry that we do not read in the USA. Another example of terrorists becoming statesmen is ... who? Menachim Begin? He used to blow up British soldiers and perhaps torture and murder opponents, and later became a leader of Israel... Perhaps that results in leadership superior to electing deserters in time of war to the presidency, as we did with G. Bush.

Mandella had the good fortune and strength to survive his extended imprisonment, and the strength of character to put his hatred behind him and lead his country through peaceful transition into the troubled seas of self-governance.

[karl]

Dec 6, 2013 10:31:30 GMT -7 kaima said:

There are already reports of his early terroristic activities, seemingly publicized by his enemies or simply people who dislike him.

I see this as good, and wish we were more honest in America about the background of our much vaunted "heroes". We place ours on pedestals and pretend they had no evil, weak or "undesirable" side to their person. In Mandela's case it was his desperation to bring justice and equality to South Africa through violence in the early part of his life.

I wonder what the British histories of the American Revolution read like, and what tales of terrorism they carry that we do not read in the USA. Another example of terrorists becoming statesmen is ... who? Menachim Begin? He used to blow up British soldiers and perhaps torture and murder opponents, and later became a leader of Israel... Perhaps that results in leadership superior to electing deserters in time of war to the presidency, as we did with G. Bush.

Mandella had the good fortune and strength to survive his extended imprisonment, and the strength of character to put his hatred behind him and lead his country through peaceful transition into the troubled seas of self-governance.

Kai

Thank you for your very fine and reality of truth with the man. I do agree with you in your analyses of Mr. Mandela. What was presented by my self, was in respect to Mr. Mandela, his past life was his choice with the ANC. There after for during his imprisonment and post was once again his choice, and as history has shown, he made the correct choices.

What I have to say about the currant Goverment of South Africa, is not so nice. It would be much better if Pieter were to speak in this stead.

In this stead, to then provide a url of currant South Africa. The url is not nice, but not less then what South Africa is.

rt.com/news/south-africa-genocide-evacuation-702/

Karl

[Nictoshek]

[pieter]

There is a lot of truth in David Dukes story, but in the same time he is one sided. He says nothing about the 'Apartheid era', the terrorizing and ethnic cleansing or area's in South-Africa from Black and colored people ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_Six ), and the Koevoet Bushmen death squads and South-African secret police and police that oppressed the non whites. It totally endorse his attention to the fate of white Afrikaner farmers. I feel connected to them, because I have been there, spoke with Afrikaner people, and see them as far brothers of the Dutch and Flemish people, because we have linguistic, cultural and religious (Calvinist) ties. Dukes gives only one side of the story and do not mention the violence and oppression of Black and colored people by the Afrikaners of the White Nasionale Party Apartheids regime, which had a huge police (-state) force, secret service apparatus and army, which was used to oppress it's own citizens.



The State Security Council (SSC) presided over the National Security Management System (NSMS) of President P W Botha's apartheid regime in South Africa. Its function was to advise the government on formulating and executing national security policy. Botha himself chaired the SSC, which was served by a secretariat of 100 full-time staff seconded from other government departments. The SSC had four divisions:

- strategy
- strategic communications
- national intelligence interpretation, and
- administration

Below the SSC was a network of regional, district and local committees or Joint Management Committees (JMCs) which reported on the activities and location of political activists so as to form an overall security profile, thus enabling decisions on security action to be taken. Such action included assassination of people opposed to the apartheid government's policies, and the widespread use of abduction, arson, sabotage and torture. The SSC put pressure on the security forces to "engage robustly" against persons and organisations opposed to the government.



Apartheid


South-African police checking passbooks during the Apartheid era

Apartheid "the state of being apart" or "differentness") was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP) governments, the ruling party from 1948 to 1994, under which the rights of the majority black inhabitants were curtailed and (white) Afrikaner minority rule was maintained. Apartheid was developed after World War II by the Afrikaner-dominated National Party and Broederbond (BrotherUnion) organisations and was practised also in South West Africa, which was administered by South Africa under a League of Nations mandate (revoked in 1966 via United Nations Resolution 2145), until it gained independence as Namibia in 1990.



Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times under Dutch rule. Apartheid as an official policy was introduced following the general election of 1948. Legislation classified inhabitants into four racial groups, "black", "white", "coloured", and "Indian", with Indian and coloured divided into several sub-classifications, and residential areas were segregated, sometimes by forced removals. Non-white political representation was abolished in 1970, and starting in that year black people were deprived of their citizenship, legally becoming citizens of one of ten tribally based self-governing homelands called bantustans, four of which became nominally independent states. The government segregated education, medical care, beaches, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of white people.



Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance and violence, and a long arms and trade embargo against South Africa. Since the 1950s, a series of popular uprisings and protests was met with the banning of opposition and imprisoning of anti-apartheid leaders. As unrest spread and became more effective and militarised, state organisations responded with repression and violence. Along with the sanctions placed on South Africa by the West, this made it increasingly difficult for the government to maintain the regime.
Apartheid reforms in the 1980s failed to quell the mounting opposition, and in 1990 President Frederik Willem de Klerk began negotiations to end apartheid, culminating in multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, won by the African National Congress under Nelson Mandela. The vestiges of apartheid still shape South African politics and society. Although the official abolishing of apartheid occurred in 1990 with repeal of the last of the remaining apartheid laws, the end of apartheid is widely regarded as arising from the 1994 democratic general elections.








Apartheid era White South-African police shoots at a black crowd in South-Africa


Armed Policemen in Soweto Township, Johannesburg, South-Africa


The Sharpville massacre on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal (today part of Gauteng).

[karl]

Nictoe

Thank you for your fine contribution, I would enjoy to watch the url you have so kindly provided, but, strangely enough, my computer is knocked off line upon opening..From the heading though, I was to understand some what the content.

The fellow, Mr. David Duke, has had some difficult times with the US Department of Justice and FBI people. Understandably so from what I gather of his KKK activities and associated standings. The man is not stupid by that of his standing upon his beliefs. Perhaps in his own manner, the man is the opposite of Mandela, just holding down his side of the sandbox..

It is problamatic if much news that is not to the honour of the present South African Goverment, will be allowed out side the country. South Africa for many years has been the bad child to the Western World with the past Goverment of: F.W. de Klerk. The down side of that goverment was to the extent of force used against the opposition in protection of The White South Africans. With this, the various border wars both inside the country and from neighbouring countries in an effert of provention of civil war incursion into the country..

Much attention has been provided in the murdering of black on whites, but I think perhaps the opposite is more inline to murdering by black on black if to count the numbers. To then the manner of killing is not so nice. A bullet is more merciful, but to be cut to pieces by knives, axes and machetie was/is a common manner of dispatch in the rural farm areas of attact.

But of course this is not displayed upon the nightly news for reasons of unsuitable for viewers and to the honour of currant Black South Africa.



www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/david-duke

Karl

[pieter]

This shows the violent final period of the Apartheid era

[Nictoshek]

Frontline: The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela

Synopsis

As Nelson Mandela prepares to step down as president of South Africa, FRONTLINE presents a deeply personal biography of one of the great figures of the 20th century.

"The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela" tells the story of the man behind the myth, probing Mandela's character, leadership and life's method through intimate recollections with friends, political allies, adversaries, and his fellow prisoners and jailers on Robben Island where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 prison years.

It's a two-hour biography filled with insights: from Mandela's 'royal' upbringing in the rural Transkei where old chiefs still remember him as a young boy and where his values and attitudes were shaped by tradition and royal prerogative--to old colleagues' anecdotes about his self-discipline, guarded privacy and quite early sense of his own historic destiny.

A major part of "The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela" probes how Mandela transformed himself in prison from an impetuous, risk-taking radical into a mature leader and statesman. On Robben Island he became the master of his own prison; through intelligence, charm and dignified defiance he bent to his will even the most brutal prison officials. And from this he took a great lesson, says Richard Stengel, co-author of his memoirs: "He realized that the relationship between him and his Afrikaans guards was a microcosm for the whole South African experience. If he could somehow come to some modus vivendi with his guards, then he could maybe bring South Africa to the promised land. "

The program also examines Mandela's electric relationship with Winnie Madikizela Mandela--a love story tragically tempered by the political ambitions of its two larger-than-life protagonists. And, it chronicles Mandela's negotiations with the increasingly embattled white rulers. At first, Mandela chose not to tell his ANC comrades about the secret talks and some accused him of selling out when they heard the news. Later, after the freed Mandela and F.W. deKlerk had negotiated a new democratic South Africa, they had bitter confrontations over the black-on-black violence in the townships that had been formented by a government force.

Together with the many interviews, the program also interweaves analyses from Mandela's biographers, Richard Stengel and Anthony Sampson. They illuminate not only what separates Mandela from ordinary men--his singular pursuit of his life's mission, his unwavering moral certitude, his own sense of his destiny-- but also, what makes him like the rest of us: his vanity, his anger, his stubbornness.

Drawing throughout this story on unique photos and rare archival film (including never-before-seen footage of Mandela on Robben Island in 1977), "The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela" concludes with contemporary scenes of an historic moment for both Mandela and his new nation. At the start of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in Johannesburg, Mandela donned the jersey of the national team and came out on the field as tens of thousands of mostly white fans roared--"Nelson, Nelson."

The event was one of the most remarkable pieces of political theater ever staged. The white players say they won the game for Mandela. It unleashed a flood of emotion that swept over every corner of the country. "It was the crossing of another Rubicon. Only Mandela could wear an enemy jersey." says ex-political prisoner Tokyo Sexwale. "The liberation struggle of our people was not about liberating blacks from bondage, it was about liberating white people from fear. And there it was, fear melting away."

WATCH ONLINE:

The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela

[karl]

Expressed opinion: Whilst in doing so in a manner of not as a continuation of his obituarie, but to the light of reality. Mr. Mandela was and is, a man of his own, he did in later years once brought around by forces of imprisonment. Enlightened him self with the tools of education. In this manner, once released, he was well founded in the skill of public administration, and he did so with great success. But, he failed. He failed in the false sense of trust. That trust was in the party ANC to carry forth that what he designed for the African People in the trust given to him by F.W. de Klerk upon transfer of the reigns of power into his hands.

The failure of Mandela was not insuring his programmes would be carried forth as he had planned. To insure democracy in the new Republic of South Africa. To insure freedom to all as equal between black and white, for all are South Africans. This would only have been possible if to by virtue of a national charter into law being so stated artical by artical by artical. With this, a democratic form of democracy with a balanced goverment of specific powers. In this manner, to eliminate the opportunity of a dictatorship.

In this stead, the power has been assumed by the leadership of the ANC to show their true colours now with Mandela out of the picture.

Apartheid was not an accident in occurance, it was a result of the abuses, cruity displayed by the indiginouse bush people. They were of little conscience of understanding of the first settlers into their native lands. For they were of little understanding of a superier culture they could learn from and in turn prosper by. But, in this stead, they fought against these first people as foriegn invaders with strange ways and white skin.

In many manners, this has not change, the same attitude, the same mindset. South Africa as a progressive modern nation was not created by the black people, it was created by the white people of European. It was them that carved out a nation of today we know of as The Republic of South Africa. The black people only enherated what was already in place by default. With this, will be to their responsiblity to carry forth or,,to lose out and become a third rate banana republic.



12/06/2013 01:31 PM

Obituary

Nelson Mandela, Champion of Freedom

By Jan Puhl

With Nelson Mandela's passing, the world has lost one of the past century's great leaders, a man who fought oppression and spent decades in prison in his battle against apartheid. In the end, he was forced to watch as his successors jeopardized his life's work.

Nelson Mandela wanted to withdraw into the land of his fathers. As he got older, the man who changed the face of Africa like no other loved to gaze out on the tranquil hilly landscape of the province of Eastern Cape. But instead of gently passing away in his modest home in the village of Qunu, Mandela died after a long struggle in his house in Johannesburg, which was surrounded by the media.

Graça Machel, Mandela's wife, sadly announced already a year ago that his "sparkle" was fading. What followed was months of discomfort and wrangling with death brought on by old lung ailment. It was a period marked by a grueling back and forth, as he was sometimes allowed to go home and sometimes compelled to stay in the hospital. On Thursday evening, it was South African President Jacob Zuma who broke the news that Mandela had died, saying: "Our nation has lost its greatest son."

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was 95 years old. Over the years, all South Africans, no matter what their skin color, would come to lovingly refer to him as "Madiba." While alive, he had already attained the status of a saint adored the world over. Bill Clinton called him the "Mahatma Gandhi of Africa," and his office continued to be flooded with interview requests and invitations even in his final years. In 2012, the government of South Africa even had Mandela's friendly face printed on the obverse of rand banknotes bearing the "big five" game animals -- the lion, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo and leopard -- on the other side.

Five years ago, when Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday, some 46,664 enthusiastic fans attended a benefit concert in London to congratulate him. 466/64 was also the number of the most famous prisoner in the world, the man who emerged from 27 years behind bars without rancor, who succeeded in getting his opponents to agree to ending Apartheid at the negotiating table, who prevented the peaceful revolution of blacks and "coloureds" against the dictatorship of the whites from devolving into a bloodbath.

A Legacy in Danger

It is not just his political accomplishments that sparked "Mandelamania." It was also his charisma and a unique combination of placidness and persistence. Those who met him once speak of his disarming ability to engage with the person across from him, and of his unshakeable self-assuredness.

Even his colorful Batik shirts triggered a fashion trend, at least in Africa. He was embraced with such genuine and widespread adoration that he was repeatedly forced to stress that he was "an ordinary human being" rather than a messiah.

But the hero Madiba also has a tragic side: His party, the African National Congress (ANC), is well on its way to gambling away Mandela's political legacy. In August 2012, predominantly black police officers shot dead protesting black miners outside the Marikana mine in the northwestern part of the country. It was a signal that brought back memories of massacres under the apartheid regime, such as that of 1960 in Sharpeville, when 69 blacks died in a hail of bullets fired by white police officers.

The ANC has governed South Africa virtually unchallenged since 1994, and the reputation of the old militant organization has been severely damaged. For one, the ANC has failed to close the enormous gap between rich and poor. The party has also had its problems conforming to democratic principles and has a reputation for being highly corrupt. ANC officials dominate the state apparatus and many economic sectors. They also put family members, friends and close associates into lucrative positions. Indeed, the new image of the ANC is gradually overshadowing the aura of its historic victory over the racist apartheid regime.

Mandela's successor as president of the "rainbow nation," as the new South Africa likes to call itself, is Jacob Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist with at least four wives. He once publically stated that a hot shower after sex was an effective safeguard against contracting the HIV virus. When appearing before supporters, he has no qualms about shouting battle cries such as "Bring me my machine gun!" One of his closest advisers was deeply embroiled in a corruption scandal regarding an arms purchase. A related corruption case against Zuma himself was dropped shortly before his election victory in 2009.

At the same time, Zuma numbers among the old cadre of liberation fighters. Like Mandela, he spent time on Robben Island. As a young firebrand, Zuma reportedly only learned to read well from older prisoners on this prison island near Cape Town. Those were still the times when one could still not foresee that the iron regime of the whites in South Africa would ever crumble.



The Rise of the Troublemaker
Mandela was born in 1918 and grew up in a system in which a small white minority repressed a black majority. The total separation of people according to skin color permeated all aspects of life. The whites had built up a system that made them rulers, that banned blacks from certain areas, that kept them poor and ignorant, that denied them any and all opportunities for social mobility.

Mandela was born the son of a member of the Tembu royal family in the former Transkei tribal homeland. In his native tongue, his name is Rolihlahla, a slang term for "troublemaker." It was a name that he was supposed to live up to.

Mendela was one of the few people of his skin color to enjoy a higher education, originally attending Fore Hare University, at the time the only university admitting blacks. He would eventually make his way to Johannesburg, where he clerked at a law firm, studied law and eventually founded the country's first only African-run law firm with his friend Oliver Tambo.

And he enjoyed life in the city. "Mandela was seen as a man about town, and a ladies' man" as well as a dancer and a boxer, wrote Anthony Sampson, his official biographer. His interest in politics only came gradually thanks to the influence of his longtime friend Walter Sisulu, to whom Mandela was thankful all his life. "By ancestry, I was born to rule. (Sisulu) helped me understand that my real vocation was to be a servant of the people," Mandela once said.

In 1944, Mandela, Tambo and Sisulu founded the Youth League of the ANC. Its goal was to create a South Africa in which skin color played no role. It was to be a non-racist state rather than a multiracial one, and the ANC expressly stated that it did not aspire to driving the whites into the sea.

However, in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre, the black movement became radicalized. Mandela became a leader of the newly founded militant wing of the ANC, the "Umkhonto we Sizwe" (Spear of the Nation). He was never a pacifist. In addition to championing a strategy of civil disobedience against the regime, his organization carried out attacks -- not against people, but against symbolic buildings, on the infrastructure of the whites.

A Man Who Treated Even His Enemies with Respect

In the late summer of 1962, Mandela was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for protest actions and other charges. One year later he and other co-defendants were placed in the dock again in the famous Rivonia trial. As the main defendant, he was charged with responsibility for numerous acts of sabotage. The public prosecutor called for the death penalty. More than 30 years later, as president, Mandela would invite him to dinner. It is precisely this kind of effort -- to treat even his worst enemies with dignity and to desire to understand them -- that makes Mandela such a highly credible person.

The judges ignored the prosecutor's recommendation and instead sentenced Mandela to life in prison. The defendants celebrated the decision almost as if it had been an acquittal, but among themselves, they had agreed that they would not appeal the decision if they were sentenced to hang. "We would disappear under a cloud of glory," he told a friend at the time. "This is the service that we can provide our organization and our people."

Mandela was to disappear in prison for 27 years. On Robben Island, he was subjected to harassment by the guards. But what caused him the greatest suffering was the fact that he couldn't be together with his wife Winnie and their five children. He was working in the island's quarry when he learned that one of his sons had died in a car accident. The prison's management sought systematically sought to break the spirits of black prisoners. In the beginning, they weren't allowed to wear pants with long legs. The short trousers they were given were intended to make clear that blacks, and especially black prisoners, were to be viewed more as naughty school boys than real people.

Mandela protested so long that a guard eventually threw him a pair of old khaki pants. Mandela wouldn't have become Madiba if he had been satisfied with that gift alone. He refused to accept the gift until his fellow prisoners were also allowed full-length trousers.

An Era of Change

He combatted the sadness with exercise and growing vegetables in the prison garden, sometimes even giving them to prison guards. Mandela persistently organized the passive resistance to the despotism. But he never held any personal hatred towards the racist regime's henchmen. He even became friends with one of his guards.

Imminent change was growing palpable by the beginning of the 1980s. Mandela was taken from the island and to a prison in Pollsmoor and, starting in 1988, in the Victor Verster Prison. There, he enjoyed certain privileges and lived in his own small bungalow with a swimming pool.

The regime seemed to be trying to get closer to its Number One enemy. Mandela also recognized the regime's weakness. The Soviet bloc was teetering, the communist threat that had always been used as a reason to justify the apartheid regime had also faded. South Africa's leaders were isolated, and international economic sanctions had driven it into a corner.

At that point, officials began to allow Mandela to leave prison on short furloughs from time to time. There were also times when he was left unguarded, but he never fled because he knew that time was on the right side for both him and the issue of black people in South Africa.

One of his greatest political achievements was not accepting the overtures the regime made to him. On his own, without even being able to consult with his followers in the ANC, he cautiously carried out "talks about talks." In the end, President Pieter Willem Botha made the offer in 1985 to free Mandela under the condition that he would renounce violence. But Mandela refused to be bought. "Only free men can negotiate," he countered. "Prisoners cannot enter into contracts."

In 1990, the regime conceded defeat. On Feb. 2, the new South African president, Frederik Willem de Klerk, announced the end of apartheid and lifted the ban on the ANC. At least 150 million people watched the televised coverage of Mandela defiantly raising his fist as he was released from prison. Mandela was part of the negotiations for a smooth transition of power. He and De Klerk were both given the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.

Mandela Spares Country a Bloodbath

In 1993, before the first free elections, the country was on the verge of civil war. Skirmishes occurred between armed white right-wing extremists, Zulu separatists and ANC fighters. People were killed every day. Then a white fanatic shot the charismatic communist Chris Hani. Madiba put all of his moral weight and charisma in a radio address with which he hoped to prevent an explosion of violence. "A white man, full of prejudice and hate, came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster," he said, at the same time praising "a white woman, of Afrikaner origin" who "risked her life so that we may know and bring justice to the assassin." He was able to prevent mass bloodshed.

In 1994, Mandela formed a government of national unity together with de Klerk. Black Africans took control of an inefficient, bureaucratic state that had been economically ruined and suffered from massive social inequity based on the color of people's skin.

After five years, Mandela voluntarily stepped down as president -- and also in that sense he is an unequalled role model for many African leaders.

In his private life, he divorced Winnie Mandela, a power hungry person embroiled in scandals. He then married Graca Machel, the widow of the former president of Mozambique. His public appearances became rarer. Madiba, who reveled in being celebrated by the crowds, didn't even make an appearance at the opening of the football World Cup in 2010. The fact that the games even took place in South Africa can also be credited to the football-crazed leader. But right before the games began, his great-granddaughter died in a car accident on the way home from the opening concert in Johannesburg.

For much of his life, Mandela's family had to survive without him. It was only after his release from prison that he really got to know his children. This pained Mandela more than his imprisonment or degradation. After prison, he wanted to catch up with them. Right up to the end of his life, he was never alone again. His family was also gathered at his home in Johannesburg to say goodbye to him during his final hours.


URL:
www.spiegel.de/international/world/obituary-nelson-mandela-dies-at-the-age-of-95-a-937581.html

[Jaga]

Mandela was a good guy who was able to make a positive difference but he was not a saint. He was married several times, he was just in a right time in a right place.
Apartheid is still around. In Haiti white people are discriminated, the same in Zimbabwe, but we do not hear about it. In Israel Arabs are discriminated, in Saudi Arabia Christians are discriminated. Somehow we use our political agenda to distinguish between what we want to know and what we should know.

[karl]

Dec 7, 2013 15:01:56 GMT -7 Jaga said:

Mandela was a good guy who was able to make a positive difference but he was not a saint. He was married several times, he was just in a right time in a right place.
Apartheid is still around. In Haiti white people are discriminated, the same in Zimbabwe, but we do not hear about it. In Israel Arabs are discriminated, in Saudi Arabia Christians are discriminated. Somehow we use our political agenda to distinguish between what we want to know and what we should know.

Jaga

I think you are most correct in your assessment. Life should not be regulated by the colour of our skin, or the part of our hair, our how we wear a hat, by our religion. By rights, we should be judged upon our deeds. Apartheid is a terrible manner of systematic exclusion in racial discrimination. It creates in the loser, a sense of dispare and fear. For what are they to do? For they are excluded by their race from certain levels of work, to be looked down upon as dirt to be tolerated but not respected. It is a sorryful state of affairs.

Our world as we know it is not very correct, but it is the only one we have.

Karl

[pieter]

Umkhonto we Sizwe



Umkhonto we Sizwe (abbreviated as MK, translated as "Spear of the Nation") was the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), co-founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville Massacre. Its founding represented the conviction in the face of the massacre that the ANC could no longer limit itself to nonviolent protest; its mission was to fight against the South African government. After warning the South African government in June 1961 of its intent to begin retaliatory acts if the government did not take steps toward constitutional reform and return of the freedoms denied under apartheid, MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961. It was subsequently classified as a terrorist organisation by the South African government and the United States, and banned.

For a time it was headquartered in Rivonia, a suburb of Johannesburg. On 11 July 1963, 19 ANC and MK leaders, including Arthur Goldreich and Walter Sisulu, were arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia. The farm was privately owned by Arthur Goldreich and bought with South African Communist Party and ANC funds, as individuals who were not deemed "White" were unable to own such a property under the Group Areas Act. This was followed by the Rivonia Trial, in which ten leaders of the ANC were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to "foment violent revolution". Wilton Mkwayi, chief of MK at the time, escaped during trial.
MK was integrated into the South African National Defence Force by 1994.


Umkhonto weSizwe vets.

Motivation for formation of the MK

According to Nelson Mandela, all of the founding members of the MK, including himself, were also members of the ANC. In his famous "I am prepared to die" speech, Mandela outlined the motivations which led to the formation of the MK:

"At the beginning of June 1961, after a long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I, and some colleagues, came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be unrealistic and wrong for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force.
This conclusion was not easily arrived at. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle, and to form Umkhonto we Sizwe. We did so not because we desired such a course, but solely because the government had left us with no other choice. In the Manifesto of Umkhonto published on 16 December 1961, which is exhibit AD, we said:
'The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices – submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future, and our freedom.'


MK Soldiers in Malange Camp in Angola.

Firstly, we believed that as a result of Government policy, violence by the African people had become inevitable, and that unless responsible leadership was given to canalise and control the feelings of our people, there would be outbreaks of terrorism which would produce an intensity of bitterness and hostility between the various races of this country which is not produced even by war. Secondly, we felt that without violence there would be no way open to the African people to succeed in their struggle against the principle of white supremacy. All lawful modes of expressing opposition to this principle had been closed by legislation, and we were placed in a position in which we had either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or take over the Government. We chose to defy the law. We first broke the law in a way which avoided any recourse to violence; when this form was legislated against, and then the Government resorted to a show of force to crush opposition to its policies, only then did we decide to answer with violence."



In 1961, MK published a manifesto entitled "Umkhonto we Sizwe (Military wing of the African National Congress): We are at War!"
"Our men are armed and trained freedom fighters not terrorists.
We are fighting for democracy—majority rule—the right of the Africans to rule Africa.
We are fighting for a South Africa in which there will be peace and harmony and equal rights for all people.
We are not racialists, as the white oppressors are. The African National Congress has a message of freedom for all who live in our country."

/

Military campaign

Units of ANC exiles had MK camps in the "frontline" states neighbouring South Africa, most prominently Angola where MK was allied to the MPLA government, and fought alongside Angolan and Cuban troops at the engagement in Cuito Cuanavale. MK fighters were also allied with ZAPU (rival to Robert Mugabe's ZANU) in then-Rhodesia, with FRELIMO in Mozambique, and with SWAPO in Namibia.
In June 1961, Mandela sent a letter to South African newspapers warning the government that a campaign of sabotage would be launched unless the government agreed to call for a national constitutional convention. Beginning on 16 December 1961, the campaign by Umkhonto we Sizwe with Mandela as its leader, launched bomb attacks on government targets and planned for possible guerrilla warfare. The first target of the campaign was an electricity sub-station. Umkhonto we Sizwe undertook other acts of sabotage in the next eighteen months. The government alleged more acts of sabotage had been carried out and at the Rivonia trial the accused would be charged with 193 acts of sabotage in total. The sabotage included attacks on government posts, machines, power facilities and crop burning.
In 1962 Mandela went to Algeria, Egypt and Ghana to get international backing for the group. After returning to South Africa, Mandela was described by Joe Slovo as "sent off to Africa a Communist and he came back an African nationalist."


African National Congress (ANC) President Nelson Mandela (L) presents a medal for bravery to James April, member of the Umkhonto We Sizwe (armed wing of the ANC) during the 32nd anniversary celebrations of the ANC army in Soweto, South Africa, in December 1993. Photo: Getty Images

Following the suppression of MK inside South Africa in the late 1960s the organisation's cadres undertook military actions against the Rhodesian army (in, it was hoped, a prelude to crossing into South Africa itself). In 1965 MK formally allied itself with ZIPRA and in July 1967 a joint MK/ZIPRA commando crossed into Rhodesia. The mission was a failure at both tactical and strategic levels, though the joint MK/ZIPRA detachment engaged the Rhodesian army in heavy firefights over the next year and academic sources have suggested that the cadres of the revolutionary armies acquitted themselves well enough for the Rhodesians to ask for South African assistance with the landmine problems they had on the farmers in the area.

The early 1970s were a low point for the ANC in many ways, and that included in the military fields. Attempts to rebuild MK inside South Africa resulted in many losses though some, including Chris Hani, were able to remain undetected for a long period. The Soweto Uprising of 1976 led to a large exodus of young black men and women. Anxious to strike back at the apartheid regime, they crossed the border to Rhodesia to seek military training. While Umkhonto we Sizwe were able to rebuild an army – one capable of attacking prestigious targets such as the refineries at Sasolburg – the force also suffered from appalling breakdowns of discipline and there were many accusations that many new recruits were being tortured or killed by a physical training regime that was out of control, such as forcing recruits to run 25 kilometres without resting or lifting weights as heavy as 150 kilograms.
By the mid-1980s MK was concentrating on propaganda of the deed – namely high profile attacks on prestige targets to demonstrate to the world the depth of resistance to apartheid as well as display to the majority population that resistance was possible (see below for a discussion of the controversies that followed) – and on building liberated zones inside the townships.



Bombings

Landmark events in MK's military activity inside South Africa consisted of actions designed to intimidate the ruling power. In 1983, the Church Street bomb was detonated in Pretoria near the South African Air Force Headquarters, resulting in 19 deaths and 217 injuries. During the next 10 years, a series of bombings occurred in South Africa, conducted mainly by the military wing of the African National Congress.
In the 1985 Amanzimtoti bomb on the Natal South Coast, five civilians were killed and 40 were injured when MK cadre Andrew Sibusiso Zondo detonated an explosive in a rubbish bin at a shopping centre shortly before Christmas. In a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the ANC stated that Zondo acted on orders after a recent SADF raid in Lesotho.



In the 1986 Durban beach-front bombing, a bomb was detonated in a bar, killing three civilians and injuring 69. Robert McBride received the death penalty for this bombing which became known as the "Magoo's Bar bombing". Although the subsequent Truth and Reconciliation Committee called the bombing a "gross violation of human rights", McBride received amnesty and became a senior police officer.
In 1987, an explosion outside a Johannesburg court killed three people and injured 10; a court in Newcastle had been attacked in a similar way the previous year, injuring 24. In 1987, a bomb exploded at a military command centre in Johannesburg, killing one person and injuring 68 personnel.


Magoo's Bar bombing at the Durban beach-front


Robert McBride

The bombing campaign continued with attacks on a series of soft targets, including a bank in Roodepoort in 1988, in which four civilians were killed and 18 injured. Also in 1988, in a bomb detonation outside a magistrate's court killed three. At the Ellis Park rugby stadium in Johannesburg, a car bomb killed two and injured 37 civilians. A multitude of bombs in "Wimpy Bar" fast food outlets and supermarkets occurred during the late 1980s, killing and wounding many people. Wimpy were specifically targeted because of their perceived rigid enforcements of many Apartheid-era laws, including excluding people of colour from their restaurants. Several other bombings occurred, with smaller numbers of casualties.



Landmine campaign

From 1985 to 1987, there also was a campaign to place anti-tank mines in rural roads in what was then the Northern Transvaal. This tactic was abandoned due to the high rate of civilian casualties—especially amongst black labourers. The ANC estimated 30 landmine explosions resulting in 23 deaths, while the government submitted a figure of 57 explosions resulting in 25 deaths.

Torture and executions

The TRC found that torture was "routine" and was official policy – as were executions "without due process" at ANC detention camps particularly in the period of 1979–1989.

In popular culture

In 1984, musician Prince Far I's album Spear of a Nation: Umkhonto we Sizwe was released (posthumously) in an act of solidarity with the MK.
In 1987, a benefit hardcore compilation album Viva Umkhonto! was released on the Dutch label Konkurrel. It featured Scream, Challenger Crew, Morzelpronk, Social Unrest, The Ex, Depraved, Victims Family, B.G.K., Rhythm Pigs, Everything Falls Apart, Kafka Prosess, S.C.A.*, and 76% Uncertain.
Zimbabwean-born African-American author and filmmaker M.K. Asante, Jr. embraced the initials MK after Umkhonto we Sizwe.
University of California Irvine (UCI) professor Frank B. Wilderson III wrote about his experience working with MK in the 1990s in his 2008 memoir Incognegro.
Dave Matthews Band song "#36" is dedicated to Chris Hani, the assassinated chief of staff of the MK and the leader of the South African Communist Party, and includes the refrain, "Hani, Hani, won't you dance with me?"



Notable members

In addition to co-founder Nelson Mandela, notable members include:
Chris Hani
Anton Fransch
Joe Nzingo Gqabi (1929–1981)[15]
Jack Hodgson
"Rashid" Aboobaker Ismail
Ronnie Kasrils
Mac Maharaj
Tootsie Mamela
Thabo Mbeki
Govan Mbeki
Robert McBride
Joe Modise
Dipuo Mvelase
Siphiwe Nyanda
Dipak Teps Patel
Michael Pillay[16][dead link]
Solly Shoke
Joe Slovo
Marion Sparg
Jacob Zuma

[karl]

Pieter

Very interesting your informational reply..Two names {as with some others} came immediatly to mind. One of Thabo Mbeki son of: Govan Mbeki of the following:

.

Names: Mbeki, Govan

Born: 9 July 1910

Died: 30 August 2001, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape

In summary: Teacher, author, member of the African National Congress and a member of the South African Communist Party
.
Govan Mbeki (Oom Gov) joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the 1950's and remained a communist and a firm believer in the superior morality of socialism to his last day. He threw himself into the work of linking the struggle for socialism in our country with the struggle for the national liberation of black people by cementing strong relations between the SACP, the African National Congress and the trade union movement.

He was one of the leading pioneers in the founding of the people's army UmKhonto we Sizwe. Together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Elias Motsoaledi, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni, Wilton Mkwayi and Dennis Goldberg he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial by the apartheid regime in 1964.

Upon his release in 1987, he was immediately part of the people's struggles to defeat the apartheid regime by contributing to the rebuilding of legal structures of the ANC and the SACP.

In all his work, he distinguished himself as a scholar, a disciplined cadre, a builder and a teacher. Few political activists in our movement have paid such attention to the indigenous application of the science and theory of Marxism to South African realities and conditions. He built and sustained a tradition of excellent political journalism and theoretical writing. His book, The Peasants Revolt was a major historical study of peasant struggles in Pondoland and Sekhukhuneland. He came out of Robben Island having published several books and having written many articles used for lectures internationally. Indeed, he was one of the great Marxist writers of the previous century

Karl

[pieter]

Denis Goldberg was born in Cape Town in 1933. In 1954 he became a member of the ANC-led Congress Alliance and later a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP). He was detained for four months in the 1960 state of emergency. In 1961 he was a technical officer at the Western Cape Regional Command of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the underground armed wing of the ANC. In 1963 he became part of the National High Command and was arrested in July 1963. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964. After spending 22 years in prison, Goldberg was released in February 1985.