Mr Nelson Mandela walks free from prison.
(Image: Mail & Guardian)Feb 11, 2008 – It is eighteen years since Mr Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
On February 11, 1990, after 27 years of incarceration, Mr Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison outside Paarl, following the relaxation of South Africa’s apartheid laws by the then ruling National Party and President FW de Klerk.
Mr Mandela was accompanied by his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and was greeted at the gates of the prison by thousands of waiting supporters. From there, Mr Mandela was taken in a motorcade to Cape Town City Hall, where he addressed a 50 000-strong crowd and millions of television viewers in South Africa and worldwide from the balcony. Before he began his speech, Mr Mandela greeted the world with “Amandla!” (“Power!”), an expression used as a rallying cry by activists and organisations through the decades of racist policies and persecution by the apartheid government.
In the speech, Mr Mandela described himself as a servant of the people, and placed the remaining years of his life in their hands.