Prisoner

Serving a life sentence, Mandela suffered through hard labor and petty cruelties. But he transformed isolation into a pulpit for change

By Alex Perry Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013

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    Once talks were under way, the conditions of Mandela's imprisonment improved further. He was allowed out of prison for escorted visits to Cape Town--after his long stretch in jail, there was no danger of his being recognized. Then, in December 1988, he was moved to his own bungalow on the grounds of a third prison, Victor Verster, in the Cape Winelands, where he could hold more talks and receive visits from ANC comrades and others. Most of his ANC comrades were opposed to Mandela's negotiations. But he had a disarming effect on them. The up-and-coming trade-union leader Cyril Ramaphosa, now ANC deputy president, was among those who vowed to demand that Mandela stop talking to the enemy. But once he met Mandela, said Ramaphosa, "what could I do? This old man walks into the room, he comes straight up to me, and he asks me how my wife and my son are doing ... This old man, who knows everything! He just disarms you, mesmerizes you completely, takes you in." On July 5, 1989, Mandela finally met Botha for half an hour at his office in Cape Town. Little of substance was discussed, but that they met at all was a breakthrough. "Now, I felt, there was no turning back," wrote Mandela.

    There wasn't. When Botha was replaced by F.W. de Klerk a month later, De Klerk immediately began dismantling apartheid. In October he released eight of Mandela's most senior comrades. Segregation was repealed and the secret service disbanded. In years to come, Mandela and De Klerk would disagree vehemently, but when they first met on Dec. 13, 1989, they had near identical reactions. "From the first I noticed that Mr. de Klerk listened to what I had to say," wrote Mandela. "Mr. de Klerk ... was a man we could do business with." In 2009, De Klerk told Time, "The first time I met Mandela ... I noticed how good a listener he was. I reported back to my constituency and said, 'This is a man I can do business with.'"

    On Feb. 2, 1990, De Klerk announced that the ban was lifted on the ANC and all other parties and all political prisoners would be freed. The state of emergency would end. On Feb. 9, Mandela was driven to De Klerk's office in Cape Town and told he would be freed the next day. After 27½ years in prison, shortly before 4 p.m. on Feb. 11, with Winnie by his side, Mandela walked out of the gates of Victor Verster. Met by a crowd of supporters and journalists, Mandela raised his right fist in the ANC salute. That evening he spoke to a crowd of thousands gathered outside city hall in Cape Town. "Amandla!" Mandela called out. "Ngawethu!" they responded.

    --ALEX PERRY

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