Umamah Bakharia | ub@radioislam.co.za

2 min read
11 February 2023 | 13:30 CAT

Saturday marks 33 years since former president Nelson Mandela was released from the then Victor Verster Prison in Paarl in February 1990 after serving almost 27 years in prison.

Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela salute well-wishers as he leaves Victor Verster prison, February 11 1990.
Picture: Reuters

In 1944, Mandela – a lawyer – joined the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest Black political organization in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg’s youth wing of the ANC.

In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating for a nonviolent resistance to apartheid.

In 1961, he was arrested for treason, and although acquitted he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country.

Mandela and seven other ANC leaders were convicted of sabotaged and sentenced to life imprisonment in June, 1964.

He then served 18 years in Robben Island from 1964 to 1982 before he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. The former president then spent his last prison sentence at Victor Verster Prison from December 1988 where he was kept in a house.

On 2 February 1990, the last president of the apartheid era, FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela.

Mandela was then released nine days later.

Although he retired from politics in 1999, he remained a global advocate for peace and social justice until his death in December 2013.