Mandela, the first South African post-apartheid
President, are committed to mother earth today
in Qunu, here are some of the memorable
moments of Mandiba's life before his passage.
1918, July 18: Born Rolihlahla at Mvezo village in
Transkei, one of 13 children in a family with
connections to Thembu royalty.
1925: Attends primary school near Qunu.
Teacher names him Nelson, in line with the
custom at the time of giving English names to
children.
1927: Entrusted to Paramount Chief Jongintaba
Dalindyebo after his father dies when he is nine-
years-old.
1934: Circumcised.
1938: Matriculates from Healdtown Methodist
boarding school and enrolls at the SA Native
College of Fort Hare.
1940: Elected to Fort Hare student
representative council, but is expelled after a
student strike.
1941: Leaves for Johannesburg to avoid an
arranged, tribal marriage.
1942: Starts articles at the law firm Witkin,
Sidelsky and Eidelman. Completes BA degree
from the University of SA via correspondence.
1943: Enrolls for an LLB at the University of the
Witwatersrand; joins the African National
Congress (ANC).
1944: Marries Evelyn Ntoko Mase, a nurse.
Founds the ANC Youth League with Anton
Lembede, AP Mda, Oliver Tambo and Walter
Sisulu.
1946: Evelyn gives birth to their first child, a boy
named Thembi. Another boy and two daughters,
one of whom dies in infancy, follow over the next
nine years.
1948: Mandela becomes ANCYL national
secretary. The National Party comes to power
and starts introducing legislation to entrench
apartheid and crush opposition.
1949: Mandela joins the ANC executive after the
ANCYL takes control of the organisation.
1951: Elected ANCYL president.
1952: Appointed volunteer-in-chief of the ANC's
non-violent defiance campaign against racist laws.
Elected Transvaal leader and first national
deputy president of the ANC. Arrested and
convicted with JS Moroka, Sisulu and 17 others
of violating the Suppression of Communism Act:
sentenced to nine months imprisonment with hard
labour, suspended for two years.
1952, July: Opens the first black legal
partnership in South Africa with Oliver Tambo.
1952, September: Banned from attending
meetings or gatherings for the next two years.
1953: Devises the M-Plan for the ANC's future
underground operations.
1955: Separates from Evelyn and meets Winnie
Madikizela, a social worker from Pondoland.
Watches as the Freedom Charter is adopted at
Kliptown.
1956, December 5: Arrested on a charge of high
treason with 155 other people; the trial drags on
for several years.
1958: Divorces Evelyn and marries Winnie;
Africanist faction splits from the ANC to form
the Pan Africanist Congress.
1959: Mandela and Winnie's first child Zenani is
born; a second daughter Zindzi follows in 1960.
The ANC and PAC organise separate anti-pass
campaigns.
1960, March: Mandela imprisoned with thousands
of others as a state-of -emergency is declared.
The ANC and PAC are banned in the wake of the
Sharpeville massacre.
1961: Mandela and all the other treason trialists
are acquitted. The government bans the ANC,
which in turn sets up its armed wing, Umkhonto
we Sizwe (MK), under Mandela's direction.
Mandela goes underground and the first acts of
sabotage follow in December.
1962, January: Mandela is smuggled out of the
country for guerrilla training.
1962, August 5: Mandela is arrested in South
Africa, near Howick in KwaZulu-Natal.
1962, November 7: He is sentenced to five years
in jail for incitement to strike and for leaving the
country without a passport.
1963, January: The nucleus of MK's leadership is
arrested at Liliesleaf farm in Rivonia.
1963, October 9: In what becomes known as the
Rivonia Trial, Mandela, Sisulu and eight others
are charged with sabotage and attempting to
violently overthrow the state.
1964, June 11: Mandela and all but two of his co-
accused are found guilty of sabotage.
1964, June 12: They are sentenced to life
imprisonment. Mandela is sent to Robben Island.
1969: Thembi dies in a car accident.
1973: The government offers to release Mandela
to the Transkei. He refuses.
1977: Winnie is banished to Brandfort, in the
Free State.
1979: Mandela is given the Nehru Award by the
government of India.
1980: The ANC's leadership in exile launches the
"Free Mandela" campaign.
1982: After 18 years on Robben Island, Mandela
is moved to Pollsmoor Prison, on the mainland.
1985, January 31: President PW Botha offers
Mandela his freedom, provided he unconditionally
rejects violence.
1985, February: Mandela rejects Botha's offer.
Protest action spreads throughout the country.
1985, August: Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee
pays a social visit to Mandela in hospital where he
is undergoing prostate surgery. Mandela is later
separated from his comrades to give the
government private access to him.
1986, February-May: Commonwealth Eminent
Persons' Group visits Mandela but fails to
persuade the government that he should be
released.
1986, June 12: A nationwide state-of-emergency
is declared and Mandela secretly meets Coetsee
for talks.
1986, August: A prison official takes Mandela on
his first car outing in 24 years.
1988: Mandela is moved to the private
Constantiaberg MediClinic in Cape Town for
treatment of tuberculosis.
1988, December 9: He is moved from the clinic to
a warder's house at the Victor Verster prison.
1989, July 4: He meets PW Botha for tea at
Tuynhuys.
1990, February 2: Botha's successor FW de Klerk
unbans all political parties and announces the
release of political prisoners.
1990, February 11: Mandela is freed.
1990, March 2: He is elected as ANC deputy
president under Oliver Tambo.
1990, May 2: Mandela heads the ANC delegation
in talks with a government team on the transition
to a non-racial democracy.
1990, June: He visits Europe, the United
Kingdom, North America and Africa, then attends
an Organisation of African Unity summit in Addis
Ababa.
1991, July: Elected ANC president in place of the
ailing Oliver Tambo.
1991, December: Attends first meeting of the
Convention for a Democratic South Africa
(Codesa), set up to negotiate procedures for
constitutional change.
1992, April 13: Announces that he and Winnie
have agreed to separate.
1993, May: Causes a political row when he
suggests 14-year-olds should be allowed to vote
in the coming polls.
1993, December: Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,
together with De Klerk. His autobiography, Long
Walk to Freedom, is published.
1994, April 27: Votes for the first time in his
life, and the ANC wins a convincing majority in
Parliament.
1994, May 9: Elected unopposed as president in
the first session of the new National Assembly.
1994, May 10: Inaugurated at the Union Buildings
in front of the largest gathering of international
leaders ever seen in South Africa.
1994, July: Undergoes eye surgery for a
cataract.
1995, April: Fires Winnie from her post as
deputy arts minister, following her involvement in
a series of controversies.
1996: Divorces Winnie.
1997: Plays a key role in persuading Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi to hand over Lockerbie
bombing suspects for trial in the Netherlands.
1998 July 18: Marries Graca Machel, the widow
of Mozambican leader Samora Machel, on his
80th birthday.
1999, June 16: Hands over the presidency to
Thabo Mbeki.
1999, December: Accepts position of mediator in
a bid to end civil conflict in Burundi.
2001, July: Diagnosed as having microscopic
prostate cancer; undergoes a seven-week course
of radiotherapy.
2002: Throws his weight behind calls for the
South African government to institute a national
public sector antiretroviral treatment programme
for people with HIV/Aids. Launches global HIV/
Aids campaign 46664, named for his prison
number.
2003: Celebrates his 85th birthday with a party
attended by celebrities from around the globe.
2004, May: Plays a key role in securing the 2010
Soccer World Cup for South Africa.
2004, June 1: Announces his retirement from
public life with the catchphrase "Don't call me, I'll
call you."
2005, January: His only surviving son, Makgatho,
dies of Aids at the age of 54. Mandela goes public
on the cause of death.
2005, February: Addresses a rally in London's
Trafalgar Square on the eve of a meeting of G7
finance ministers, to demand freedom for the
millions of "slaves" of poverty worldwide.
2005, March: Gives his blessing to the creation
on Johannesburg's Constitutional Hill of the
Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and
Commemoration, to honour and document his life.
2007: Witnesses the installation of grandson
Mandla Mandela as chief of the Mvezo Traditional
Council in the Eastern Cape.
2008: Turns 90, and asks emerging generations
to continue the fight for social justice.
2009: Mandela's birthday is endorsed by the
United Nations as International Mandela Day, on
which people are encouraged to do good deeds
for others.
2011, January: Admitted to hospital in
Johannesburg for what the Nelson Mandela
Foundation describes as "routine tests".
2011, June: Mandela moves to his home town,
Qunu, in the Eastern Cape.
2012, January: The presidency announces that
Mandela will return to his Johannesburg home
because of "maintenance" at his Qunu home.
2012, February: The presidency announces
Mandela's admission to a Pretoria hospital for a
stomach ailment.
2012, December: Mandela admitted to a Pretoria
hospital for treatment of a recurring lung
infection and to have gallstones removed. He
spends between December 8 and 26 in hospital.
2013, March 9: Mandela admitted to a Pretoria
hospital for a scheduled check-up. He is
discharged the following day.
2013, March 27: Mandela is re-admitted due to a
recurrence of his lung infection. He is discharged
on April 6.
2013, June 8: Admitted to hospital in the early
hours of the morning due to a recurring lung
infection.
2013, June 24: The presidency announces
Mandela's condition is critical.
Culled from Punch
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.
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