Forums » Pearl's Cafe

• Adebola Ayoade

  

  • Moderator
  • 199 posts
   

  May 18, 2015 6:37 AM CEST

  Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918 –2013)

  "Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom."

  -Nelson Mandela

  In March 1990, Mandela was elected as deputy president of the ANC where he was faced with the challenge of reconciling the black majority with the white oppressors and various factions within the antiapartheid movement. In October, the law that required races to use separate amenities was annulled.

  In 1991, 5^th June, the government annulled the law that made it illegal for Africans to own land in urban races.

  In 1992, White South Africans voted “yes” in a referendum that asked if the reform of apartheid should be continued. In September 400 political prisoners were released as requested by Mandela. That same year, Mandela divorced his wife Winnie.

  In 1994, the ANC won the country's first all-race elections. On May 9, Mandela was elected unanimously by the National Assembly while De Klerk was elected one of two deputy presidents.

  On 10^th May, he was inaugurated at a ceremony in Pretoria, the South African capital. In his inaugural address he stressed the need for reconciliation and once again quoted his own words from the Rivonia trial, reaffirming his determination to create a peaceful, nonracial society. He also pledged 1/3^rd of his salary for 5 years to the establishment of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and also founded Nelson Mandela Foundation.

  In 10^th December, 1996,a new South African constitution that barred discrimination against the country's minorities, including whites, was signed into law by Mandela. It contained a bill of rights and ended the Government of National Unity. The ANC takes government in its own right and The National Party became the opposition.

  In 1997, Mandela resigned as president of ANC.

  In 1998, On his 80^th birthday, Mandela married Graca Machel, widow of Mozambican President Samora Machel, killed in a plane crash 12 years earlier.

  In 1999, 2^nd June, Mandela stepped down as the president of South Africa and returned to live at his birthplace in Transkei.

  December, that same year, he was appointed by the UN to lead talks aimed at ending a six-year old civil war in the African State of Burundi.

   

  ...to be continued.

   

   

  Kindly like us on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/debypearl?ref=hl

  And follow us on twitter - @PearlsCafe1

   

  Thank you!