Thirtieth Anniversary of the release from prison of Nelson Mandela
11 February 2020
The release of Nelson Mandela from prison 30 years ago was the first momentous consequence of the announcements made by President FW de Klerk in Parliament nine days earlier. As Mr De Klerk observed in his autobiography: as he watched Nelson Mandela walking through the gates of Victor Verster Prison, he was struck by an inescapable truth: “...an irreversible process had begun and nobody could predict precisely how it would end.”
Now 30 years later we can answer part of that question:
the constitutional democracy that FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela took the lead in negotiating during the following six years is still intact;
South African has rejoined the international community;