SBS50: Biggest Story 1990

In 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from jail paving the way for democracy in South Africa. Arrested in 1962 for his campaign to get equal rights for black South Africans, Nelson Mandela was charged with treason and spent 27 years in a notorious prison on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela EPA/STR Credit: STR/EPA

He was given an overwhelming welcome when he made his first public appearance.

Friends, comrades and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all.

Nelson Mandela

Four years later Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.

When he died in 2013 at the age of 95, he was lauded as one of the world’s most influential people of the past century.

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