Unbanned 25 Years Ago

Mandela was found sipping tea with his shoes off in a quiet Cape Town home, his driver having made a detour to avoid the crowd outside the city hall.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) sought the greatest possible protection of human rights and the strongest possible constitutional democracy.

With so many citizens trapped in poverty and hunger it is difficult to remember February?2 1990 today with the same feelings we had 25 years ago.

Elation was tempered by fear and the sense that the unbanning was real came only when Mandela was released.

The cops did not share in the jubilation when president FW de Klerk unbanned the liberation movements in 1990.

The sacrifices we made for the struggle were all validated in one speech by FW de Klerk.

The unbanning of political parties caught people unawares, but most can recall where they were.

The motives of the ‘last apartheid president’ can only be truly understood within a 20-year context.

It’s 25 years since Madiba’s release from prison and the unbanning of political parties. Former minister Mosibudi Mangena asks what’s changed.

A sequence of solutions – in Angola, Namibia and Mozambique – guaranteed democracy in SA.

Mandela was a far wilier politician, and could be less saintly, than some other portrayals would have us believe, writes Robin Renwick.

The unbanning of political parties and the end of emergency media laws meant the Weekly Mail had to reassess its role.