Biography
This biography has been written in chapters, please refer to the contents on the right to view the different periods in Mandela's life.
Prisoner for Life
On 12 June 1964 all the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment and held at Pretoria Central prison. The following night Mandela and his co-accused were flown by military plane to Robben Island Prison. Mandela and his comrades was held together and leaders of other South African and Namibian political organisations in a separate section of Robben Island prison, separated from common law prisoners. He remained on Robben Island until April 1982 when he and the Rivonia trial accused were transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. That same year a campaign demanding the release of all political prisoners was launched in South Africa and abroad. The campaign was titled Release Nelson Mandela and together with the campaign for economic and other sanctions against South Africa become the symbol of the international Anti-Apartheid Movement, for several decades the largest social movement in the world.
In 1988 the ANC and the Mass democratic Movement inside South Africa planned worldwide celebrations to mark Mandela's 70th birthday prepared for mass celebrations inside the country. The government banned all gatherings and arrested some activists and leaders of the birthday celebrations. A 12-hour music concert in London and broadcasted to over 50 countries draw enormous attention and many foreign countries pressured the South African government to release Mandela.
On 13 August 1988 Mandela was taken to Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town for treatment for fluid on the lungs. He stayed in hospital for six weeks. It was subsequently revealed that he was suffering from tuberculosis. The following month he was transferred to the Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic where he was treated until December, when he was moved to a house in the grounds of the Victor Verster Prison, near Paarl.
From July 1986 onwards a small group of the government and intelligence agents began engaging with Mandela to persuade him to renounce armed struggle. In exchange, he would be released to the Transkei Bantustan, an apartheid homeland. Mandela refused but did not close the door to dialogue with the government. He had contact with government representatives, first with Minister of Justice Kobie Coetzee and subsequently with Minister of Constitutional Development Gerrit Viljoen. This eventually led to his meeting with State President P.W Botha in July 1989 at Tuynhuys in the Parliamentary precinct. In December 1989 he met the new state president, FW de Klerk. Unknown to the government, Mandela had kept Oliver Tambo, the President of the ANC in exile, informed of his discussions with the government through Mac Maharaj, a former Robben Island prisoners and a confident of Mandela. Maharaj had secretly entered South African and established a highly sophisticated underground network known as Operation Vula. In addition to meeting government representatives, Mandela was allowed to meet with senior members of the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and other political groups.
Next: Free at last (1994-1999)
Previous: Revolutionary Guerrilla Leader (1960s)