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that was on trial. Furthermore, he was der by both the prisoners and the South Africa was shrinking and, in
being tried by a system that he had warders. The conditions in the pri- a growing labour shortage, even the
not chosen since he was forbidden son began to improve. First of all, government admitted that apartheid
from voting. At the end of the trial the inmates were not obliged to work could not be sustained. From time
the judge took three minutes to and so had more time for them- to time the authorities would make
reach his verdict: life imprisonment. selves. Soon sports were permitted. tempting offers to release the pri-
Mandela was 46 years old. Then the prisoners were allowed to soners if they would accept certain
watch films, speak to each other and conditions. It offered to set up three
The inmates of Robben Island receive better food. One of the grea- separate parliaments for the whites,
were determined to preserve their test shortcomings was that they had the coloureds and the blacks, but this
dignity and self-respect, and gained no news of the outside world. Even- ridiculous idea was quickly dropped.
strength from being kept together. tually, the authorities began reading Next, in January 1985 the prime-mi-
The prisoners were required to break out an edited news bulletin over the nister, P.W. Botha, addressed parlia-
stones, work in a lime quarry or col- loudspeaker and, finally in 1980, the ment and offered political prisoners
lect seaweed. They were allowed to prisoners were allowed to buy cen- freedom if they rejected violence.
enrol in correspondence courses and sored copies of newspapers. Never- Mandela replied: "It is up to you,
many of them completed their for- theless, national newspapers were not us, to renounce violence," and
mal education or university studies. still forbidden from printing infor- that he would only accept uncon-
Mandela wrote a book that was in- mation about Mandela. What the ditional release and a complete end
tended to be an inspiration for Afri- prisoners did learn was that libera- to apartheid. Throughout 1986 and
1987 talks took take
place between the ANC
and the South African
government as violence
at home and inter-
national disapproval
continued to put pres-
sure on the government.
In 1989, Mandela was
moved to even more
comfortable premises
at Victor Vorster Prison
near Cape Town.

In August 1989 Botha
resigned as State pres-
ident and his place was
taken by F.W. de
Klerk, who was deter-
mined to find a formula
for freeing Mandela. On 2
February 1990, de Klerk
made a speech to parlia-
ment lifting the bans on
can freedom fighters and the manus- tion movements had been victorious the ANC, the Communist Party and
cript was smuggled out of the prison. in Angola and Mozambique. The tide thirty-two other previously illegal
During this same period, Mandela's was turning! organizations. "The time for nego-
wife Winnie was being repeatedly tiations has arrived," he said.
harassed by the police. In March 1982, after eighteen years
on Robben Island, Mandela and On ii February 1990 Nelson Mandela
On 16 June 1976, the police opened Walter Sisulu were transferred to was released from prison amongst
fire in Soweto on students who were Pollsmoor Prison. Then, in May tumultuous scenes. Finally, the
demonstrating because they did not 1984, after twenty-one years of sepa- government accepted a single, elec-
want to be educated in Afrikaans. ration, he was able to hold his wife ted constitutional assembly and free
This day is now a public holiday in Winnie in his arms. democratic elections, which were
South Africa. In the following weeks held on 27 April 1994. Two weeks la-
hundreds of students were killed Signs of a change of attitude on ter, on ii May, Mandela was sworn in
and, at last, the world began to take the part of the South African go- as South Africa's first democratically
an interest in what was happening. vernment became more frequent elected president.
as international bankers showed
Gradually, over the years, Mandela that they had lost confidence in the JOHN FOX
was acknowledged as a great lea- regime. The white population of

42 History
1