On 11th February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison near Cape Town. Addressing a crowd of 50,000 people, he declared, “Our march to freedom is irreversible.” Millions watched this historic event on television. Mandela’s release marked a significant step toward dismantling apartheid—institutionalized racial segregation—in South Africa in 1994. However, the US government, under Presidents Bush and Clinton, was slow to respond. Mandela was banned from entering the USA until 2008.
Nelson Mandela was born in the Eastern Cape in 1918. He attended his first demonstration in 1943 in Alexandra, outside Johannesburg, successfully opposing a 20% increase in bus fares. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) but later criticized its leader, Alfred Xuma, because “he enjoyed the relationships he had formed with the white establishment and did not want to jeopardize them with political action.” In 1944, Mandela co-founded the more radical ANC Youth League.
In 1956, Mandela was arrested for high treason in a trial that lasted five years. Following the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, where police killed 69 demonstrators, over 18,000 people were detained, and the ANC was banned. Mandela was convicted in another trial in 1962. Resistance continued with strikes in the early 1970s, the Soweto uprising in 1976, and the first openly political strike in 1982, involving 100,000 participants. These actions ultimately led to a series of strikes throughout the 1980s, contributing to the downfall of the apartheid regime.
In response to the Sharpeville Massacre, Mandela began to believe that armed struggle was essential for the liberation of Black South Africans. Although some have portrayed him as a pacifist, he became the central organizer of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC’s armed wing, starting in 1961. By 1985, the apartheid government indicated they would release Mandela if he renounced violence. He responded by stating he would remain in prison until the ban on the ANC was lifted.
Mandela’s release and the dismantling of apartheid did not lead to full equality in South Africa; instead, it instituted what Patrick Bond has termed “class apartheid.” In 1994, South Africa was forced to adopt a neoliberal IMF plan, which included cuts to state spending and public sector wages. Subsequent governments took further actions, such as orchestrating the Marikana massacre of striking miners. Nevertheless, Mandela’s release represented a significant victory, showing that with sufficient mobilisation, it is possible to overcome even the most repressive states.
