Mandela was a flawed icon. But without him South Africa would be a sadder place
I was one of the thousands who watched Nelson Mandela, the South African liberation struggle hero, leave prison on 11 February 1990, and then mount the podium in front of Cape Town’s City Hall, expressing the hope that the apartheid government would agree to negotiations so that there might no longer be the need for armed struggle against apartheid to continue.
Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s freedom struggle icon and first black president, continues to be revered around the world.
He said:
Today, the majority of South Africans, black and white, recognise that apartheid has no future. It has to be ended by our decisive mass action … We have waited too long for our freedom.
He appealed to white South Africans to
join us in the safety of a new South Africa. The freedom movement is a politica...