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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 2/11/26: Free [1]

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Date: 2026-02-11  

36 years ago today Nelson Mandela won his long fight against the government that imprisoned him.

On 11 February 1990, at 16:14 local time, Nelson Mandela, once South Africa's most wanted man, walked out of Victor Verster Prison hand-in-hand with his then wife Winnie, after spending 27 years behind bars. Huge crowds had waited for hours in the sweltering heat in anticipation of catching sight of him. Mandela had been largely hidden from view during his long years of imprisonment. The government had not released any photos of him while he had been in captivity, in the hope of curbing his growing fame since his conviction.

That sure didn’t work. After 27 years on ice, Mandela quietly outlasted his captors.

Recovering from tuberculosis exacerbated by the damp conditions in his cell,[193] Mandela was moved to Victor Verster Prison, near Paarl, in December 1988. He was housed in the relative comfort of a warder's house with a personal cook, and he used the time to complete his LLB degree.[194] While there, he was permitted many visitors and organised secret communications with exiled ANC leader Oliver Tambo.[195][196] In 1989, Botha suffered a stroke; although he retained the state presidency, he stepped down as leader of the National Party, to be replaced by F. W. de Klerk.[197] In a surprise move, Botha invited Mandela to a meeting over tea in July 1989, an invitation Mandela considered genial.[198] Botha was replaced as state president by de Klerk six weeks later; the new president believed that apartheid was unsustainable and released a number of ANC prisoners.[199] Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, de Klerk called his cabinet together to debate legalising the ANC and freeing Mandela. Although some were deeply opposed to his plans, de Klerk met with Mandela in December to discuss the situation, a meeting both men considered friendly, before legalising all formerly banned political parties in February 1990 and announcing Mandela's unconditional release.[200][201] Shortly thereafter, for the first time in 20 years, photographs of Mandela were allowed to be published in South Africa.[202] Leaving Victor Verster Prison on 11 February, Mandela held Winnie's hand in front of amassed crowds and the press; the event was broadcast live across the world.[203][204] Driven to Cape Town's City Hall through crowds, he gave a speech declaring his commitment to peace and reconciliation with the white minority, but he made it clear that the ANC's armed struggle was not over and would continue as "a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid". He expressed hope that the government would agree to negotiations, so that "there may no longer be the need for the armed struggle", and insisted that his main focus was to bring peace to the black majority and give them the right to vote in national and local elections.[205][206] Staying at Tutu's home, in the following days Mandela met with friends, activists, and press, giving a speech to an estimated 100,000 people at Johannesburg's FNB Stadium.[207]

He was surprised at his reception.

This release happened after the Apartheid government had previously offered him conditional freedom in 1985. This was turned down and Mandela asked his daughter Zindzi to read out his reply to the offer at a rally in Jabulani, Soweto1. When Mandela was finally released in 1990 none of the conditions applied because it was such an auspicious moment of hope for South Africa and the world - the end of Apartheid was near and a climate conducive to peaceful negotiations in good faith was needed. This article details Nelson Mandela‘s recollections in interviews that he had with Richard Stengel2 during the writing of Long Walk to Freedom. In the first extract, Madiba expresses surprise that a huge crowd had gathered outside Victor Verster Prison to see him walk out of the prison gates. “No, I had asked the prison authorities to make sure that the warders who worked with me in the section of the prison where I was kept, should assemble at the gate with their families so that I could have the opportunity of thanking them and I was expecting no more than, you know, 20 to 30 people because they were working in shifts and so on and I was expecting no more than 30 people. I was surprised then to see the crowd. I never even had the opportunity of seeing the warders because of the crowd, both inside the gate and outside.”

As we all know, he went on to lead the country that had tried to break him. Perseverance leads to victory.

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