ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the final stages of apartheid, focusing on the government’s extraordinary turn away from decades of oppressive and divisive rule. It considers the international movement to release Nelson Mandela from prison, the opposition that anti-apartheid activists encountered, and the ways in which a unique set of conditions intertwined to help bring apartheid to an end, ultimately allowing Prisoner Mandela to become President Mandela. In March 1982, Nelson Mandela, together with his African National Congress comrades Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba and Andrew Mlangeni, were moved to Pollsmoor Maximum Security prison in suburban Cape Town. Nelson Mandela rejected Botha’s promise to consider extending an olive branch, as he knew that the government was not ready to share political power with the country’s black majority. Mandela was more than just a figurehead of course, but the way his imprisonment became a core part of the international movement was unique to South Africa’s struggle.