Tribute to Nelson Mandela

Tribute to Nelson Mandela
Mandela's words: "The struggle is my life," are not to be taken lightly.


Mandela has held numerous positions in the ANC: ANCYL secretary (1948); ANCYL president (1950); ANC Transvaal president (1952); Deputy National President (1952) and ANC President (1991).

He was born at Qunu, near Umtata, on 18 July 1918. His father, Henry Mgadla Mandela, was Chief Councillor to Thembuland's Acting Paramount Chief, David Dalindyebo. When his father died, Mandela became the chief's ward and was groomed for the chieftainship.

Mandela matriculated at Healdtown Methodist Boarding School and then started a B.A. Degree at Fort Hare. As an SRC member, he participated in a student strike and was expelled, along with the late Oliver Tambo, in 1940. He completed his degree by correspondence from Johannesburg, did articles of clerkship and enrolled for an L.LB. at the University of the Witwatersrand.

In 1944, he helped to found the ANC Youth League, whose Programme of Action was adopted by the ANC in 1949.

Mandela was elected national volunteer-in-chief of the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He traveled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation. He was given a suspended sentence for his part in the campaign. Shortly afterwards a banning order confined him to Johannesburg for six months. During this period he formulated the "M Plan", in terms of which ANC branches were broken down into underground cells.











Nelson Mandela retired from Public life in June 1999 and died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.

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