December 05, 2013
Nelson Mandela dies leaving legacy of reconciliation
There is universal mourning for Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first post-Apartheid president, who died peacefully today at his Johannesburg home at the age of 95.
The man known to his people as Madiba spent 27 years in jail until being released to lead his African National Congress into South Africa’s first all race election in 1994.
He had been in intensive medical care since he developed a lung infection in June.
At the time Gregory Fortuin, who was the ANC representative in New Zealand during those years, Mandela he had a profound effect on his country.
"Nobody else but him could have come out of prison in 1990, to be released by Frederik Willem de Klerk who was the right wing candidate for the presidency who unconditionally released Mandela and together the two of them won the (Nobel) Peace prize. But Madiba came out and when the world model was Nuremberg, 'go and get the bastards that did this to you,' Madiba spoke truth and reconciliation," he says.
Nelson Mandela visited New Zealand in 1995 and thanked those New Zealanders who had protested against South Africa’s racist apartheid regime.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd