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SA HOTEL - NELSON MANDELA - CAPE TOWN
"I have fought against white domination, I have fought against black domination. I have cherished
the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.
It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die"
quote from Nelson Mandela during the Rivonia Trial.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela - South Africa's peace icon and father of the nation, was deprived of
being a his childs' father when on the Robben Island prison. As a political activist for years, he saw the pain and
poverty of many which would otherwise have been lost. A disciplined man yet with a caring and wise heart. A man who
has ruled the nation and yet enjoys being at home, a person humble in his circumstance yet proud of who he is.
Born in Umtata the capital of the Transkei on the 18 July 1918 he grew up enjoying the outdoors,
his friends and family. His father was the principal councillor to the Acting Paramount Chief of Thembuland and in very
high regard of the people. After his death, the guardianship of Rolihlahla was given over to the Acting Paramount Chief
and he was groomed to assume high office. Rolihlahla however dreamt of being a lawyer and after been schooled at a local
mission school and then at Healdtown , as a secondary school, he matriculated and enrolled at the University College of
Fort Hare.
A clever student, during his BA Degree he joined the Student Representative Council but was
unfortunately suspended after joining a protest boycottand then went to Johannesburg, where he completed his BA by
correspondence and started his LLB. Through friends he was introduced to the ANC (African National Congrress) in 1942.
In 1944 the African National Congress Youth League was formed.
The ANCYL programme ( programme of Action), was aiming for attainment of full citizenship for all
South Africans, direct parlimentary representation, also setting out ideals for Trade Union rights, redistribution of
land, education, culture. Nelson Mandela was an important co author in these documents.
At the end of 1952 Nelson Mandela was elected as the president of the Youth League and the Transvaal
region of the ANC. He was also convicted for contravening the Suppression of Communism Act for his part in the Defiance
Campaign and given a suspended prison sentence. During the months that followed he wrote the attorneys exam and went into
practice with Oliver Tambo. During the years that followed, Nelson Mandela himself felt the brutality of the laws,
concerning his practice, his family and was apprehended for treason but this trial collapsed in 1961. also during this
year, when peaceful protest attempts had failed, Umkhonto we Siswe was formed, a decision made to use violent forms of
struggle.
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