South Africans
Celebrate Icon Mandela’s Release
Tony Ekata, Pretoria.
In
commemoration of twenty years anniversary of release of former
South African President and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela,
from incarceration, thousands of South Africans are attending
events lined up for the celebrations.
The Victor Vester Prison outside Cape Town, where Mandela spent
the later years of his jail term and from where he walked into
freedom has been declared as a national heritage site on
Thursday, by the National Heritage Council.
Chanting ‘Viva, Nelson Mandela, Viva’, thousands of South
Africans marked two decades since the anti-apartheid icon walked
to freedom after 27 years as a political prisoner.
VON Southern Africa Correspondent Tony Ekata reports that among
the predominantly black crowd of well-wishers waving the black,
green and gold flags of Mandela's African National Congress
(ANC) were fellow heroes present on that momentous Sunday two
decades ago.
Down memory lane
Long-serving former Finance Minister and current Minister of
Planning, Trevor Manuel who was one of the ANC activists called
upon on the eve of Mandela’s release to prepare for his
reception, says they were caught unawares: ’’We were quite
unprepared... There were no cell-phones. We had no access to a
two-way radio system. We needed to find some cars that would be
fit for Mandela to be driven in. We needed to ensure overnight
that people would be trained as marshals... We needed approval
from the city to get control of the Grand Parade...to ensure the
police would be listening to us for a change... And that was the
work of the night of the 10th of February."
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu describes some of the chaos
that followed: "When they arrived I said: 'Let's pray" and we
sang... And they kept being interrupted because telephone calls
would come: 'This is the White House. We would like to talk to
Mr. Mandela?' 'This is State House'...all of that evening there
were calls from leaders round the world, wanting to congratulate
him."
Millionaire businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, then a senior mining
union official, recalling the chaotic scenes that followed
Mandela's release said: ’’t was all a bit chaotic and I must
tell you we were unprepared.’’
Ramaphosa and his associates had to fly to Cape Town in
specially chartered aircraft, while security outside the prison
in the heart of South Africa's winelands was organised by a
Catholic priest.
More that expected
crowd
Mandela recalls that he never imagined that he would be received
by the massive crowd waiting for him outside the prison but once
he was in their midst, he instinctively raised his right fist in
the black power salute. He hadn’t been able to do that in
twenty-seven years.
Rank-and-file ANC members were asked to don suits and look tough
to provide a vague semblance of security but minutes after
images of a free Mandela were beamed around the world, he was
swamped in the melee.
"We lost him along the way," Ramaphosa said with a grin.
Freedom speech
Only after a tip-off from a traffic policeman did frantic ANC
leaders find Mandela, after which organisers then escorted him
to a podium to deliver his first public words in nearly three
decades in front of tens of thousands of people on Cape Town's
Grand Parade.
Then he uttered those memorable words: ’’ Amandla!...CROWD: "Awethu!"..."Friends,
comrades and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name
of peace, democracy and freedom for all…..I stand here before
you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you-the people.
Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me
to be here today………’’
Mandela claims to be no prophet but his words at the 1964
treason trial, which he re-echoed on the day he walked to
freedom, sounded more than prophetic.
’’ 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 nations live together
in harmony and with equal opportunity. It is an ideal which I
hope to live for and achieve but if needs be it is an ideal for
which I am prepared to die.’’
Thank God he lived to see the birth of democracy in South
Africa.
From prison to President
Mandela's push for reconciliation during his 1994-1999
presidency is credited with unifying the racially divided nation
and laying the foundations of the democracy that oversees the
continent's biggest economy.
In power since 1994, the ANC has made some headway in reducing
levels of inequality and this year's hosting of the soccer World
Cup is a symbol of the ‘new’ South Africa growing
self-confidence.
With additional report from Reuters/Yinka
