After Release

  1. When he was released, Mandela became Deputy President of the ANC.
  2. He toured the world gaining support for his desired political reforms, meeting amongst others the pope, the US President and the British Prime Minister.
  3. After returning to South Africa, Mandela realised that - from a military point of view - the ANC was weak, and therefore continued violence was unlikely to achieve anything positive. He therefore agreed to a ceasefire.
  4. Despite many people within the MK and the ANC criticising him for this, he was soon afterwards elected the organisation’s president. In this role he continued striving for equality in South Africa.
  5. Although Mandela had initially agreed to a ceasefire and a cessation of violent attacks, the ANC continued (and in some cases increased) their protests. Furthermore the negotiations didn’t seem to be going anywhere, so they were called off.
  6. In 1993 however, talks were resumed after some ANC members were killed and Mandela realised that violence wasn’t helping anyone. Through a series of tough negotiations, and with president de Klerk’s incredible efforts, the parties agreed on an interim constitution and to hold a truly democratic national election.
  7. In the elections, held on the 27th April 1994, Mandela’s ANC party was victorious with 62% of the national vote. He was duly elected president of South Africa - the first democratically elected president in history. His years of campaigning had finally achieved their goal.
  8. 4000 guests attended Mandela’s presidential inauguration, including Cuban president Fidel Castro and PLO President Yasser Arafat.
  9. Throughout his presidency, Mandela set up a number of initiatives to make South Africa a better place. Due to the economy being in a bad state, he was unable to spend as much money developing the country as he had promised in his election campaign, however he did increase spending on the country’s infrastructure.
  10. His presidency wasn’t totally without controversy however - he travelled to Libya to award Colonel Gaddafi a South African Knighthood, and forged bonds with Indonesian president Suharto who was responsible for terrible human rights abuses.