PRESIDENCY

After Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he encouraged the continual pressure the other nations were putting on the South African government because he knew in time, their long and hard efforts for an equality among races and a constitutional reform would be pay off in the end.

Nelson Mandela was elected president of the ANC in 1991, one year after his release from prison. With Oliver Tambo, Mandela's friend and business partner at his side, they were able to meet with President F. W. de Klerk and negotiate terms regarding what would be South Africa's first true symbol of equality--multiracial elections. 

South Africans stand in support of Mandela during
the first multiracial elections in South Africa 1994.
(Photo courtesy of Corbis).

The negotiations were not as smooth as one could have hoped because of violent eruptions from black South African protesters who wanted South Africa to be given completely back into the hands of the native people again. Christ Hani, the leader of the ANC, was murdered as a result of the conflicts that grew ever taller between the white and black South Africans.

Finally, in 1993, Nelson Mandela, the governing National Party of South Africa, and other political organizations were able to come to an agreement that ended the apartheid and started the new multiracial government. Mandela and President de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize that year for their successful at peaceful cooperation. South Africa held its first democratic elections on April 27, 1994. Over twenty-two million South Africans voted in their country's first multiracial parliamentary elections--the first time in 300 years that blacks could vote. By a landslide, the ANC won the honor of leading the country, making Nelson Mandela, the president. On May 10, Nelson Mandela, at the age of seventy-five, was sworn into office and made South Africa's first black president.

President Nelson Mandela holding up the "victory fist".
(Getty Images).

Inspired after dedicating his life to the liberation of his country from the apartheid choke hold, Mandela published his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, in 1994.* The next year, he won the Order of Merit. 

Mandela spent the majority of his time in office helping the nation transition to the new rule. He used the nation's enthusiasm and pride for sports, (most notably soccer and rugby) as a way to unite all South African citizens; a prime example being when South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup in 1995.** This world-wide event shone a more positive light onto South Africa, previously a nation making the world news for the violent protests and riots against the apartheid.

During his presidency, Nelson Mandela managed to prevent the economy from collapsing. The South African government was able to provide jobs, housing, and health care for its people under Mandela's Reconstruction and Development Plan. He created a new constitution for a strong, centralized government that functioned under majority rule and protected the rights of minorities as well as freedom of expression. In 1999, Nelson Mandela stepped down from office for retirement at age 81.

*Fun fact: Nelson Mandela wrote the majority of his autobiography while in prison. (He had twenty-seven years of time to kill! (To see a list of Mandela's other works, see "Personal Life" in the left-hand feedbar).

**Fun fact: The movie, Invictus (2009), portrays the the global and racial conflicts that occurred during the Rugby World Cup for Mandela and all of South Africa.