* Nelson Mandela International Day

Simple Minds was the first band to sign up for Mandela Day, a concert held at Wembley Stadium, London, UK, as an expression of solidarity with the then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela.

This was " Mandela Day ", which the band played live on the day ( alongside cover versions of " Sun City " with Little Steven and a cover version of Peter Gabriel's " Biko " on which Gabriel himself took on lead vocals ).

Both " Belfast Child " and " Mandela Day " would set the direction for Simple Minds ' next album, another song-based affair which would supplant the planned instrumental project.

Also referred to as Freedomfest, Free Nelson Mandela Concert, and Mandela Day, the event called for Mandela's release.

He was the chief guest on Nelson Mandela International Day at the India International Center, where he shared his views with children.

In 2001, he Nelson Mandela also appeared on the balcony of South Africa House, to mark the seventh anniversary of Freedom Day, when the system of Apartheid ended.

He made his international debut as an umpire at the One Day International " Mandela Tournament " in late 1994, standing in the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Durban on 2 December 1994.

It was also referred to as Freedomfest, Free Nelson Mandela Concert and Mandela Day.

* Mandela Day by Simple Minds

Simple Minds wrote Mandela Day for the event and recorded it for the first time ( it was later released on the album Street Fighting Years and was the AA-side of the EP Ballad of the Streets featuring the A-Side Belfast Child, a No. 1 on the British charts in 1989 ).

* Simple Minds-" Mandela Day ", " Sanctify Yourself ", " East at Easter ", " Alive and Kicking "

He was one of the Deputy Presidents of South Africa during the presidency of Nelson Mandela until 1996, the last white person to hold the position to date.

The atrocity was reportedly condemned strongly by South African president Thabo Mbeki and Winnie Mandela, among others, who openly spoke in favour of Marike de Klerk.

* While incarcerated on Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela recited the poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self-mastery.

Led by dictator Hastings Banda, Malawi was the only African country to maintain close relations with White-ruled South Africa until the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela.

However, Pretoria's political reputation was changed with the inauguration of Nelson Mandela on the 10th May 1994 as the country's first non-apartheid President at the Union Buildings close to Pretoria CBD.

It is of particular note that it was here that Nobel Laureate and former Presidents of South Africa Nelson Mandela and Kgalema Motlanthe, alongside many other political prisoners, spent 27 years imprisoned during the apartheid era.

He also acted as President of the country when President Nelson Mandela was out of the country.

In 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected President, it was estimated that of South Africa's 44 million inhabitants, 7. 7 million lived in these settlements.

He succeeded Nelson Mandela as ANC president in December 1997 and as president of the Republic in June 1999 ( inaugurated on 16 June ); he was subsequently reelected for a second term in April 2004.

In March 2009, the Independent Electoral Commission ruled that Winnie Mandela, who was selected as an ANC candidate, could run in the April 2009 general election, despite having a fraud conviction.

Mrs. Mandela claimed that she had the youth taken to her home because she suspected the reverend was sexually abusing them.

In 1992 Mandela was accused of ordering the killing of Dr Abu-Baker Asvat, a family friend who had examined Seipei at Mandela's house, after Sepei had been abducted but before he had been killed.

Mandela was said to have paid the equivalent of $ 8, 000 and supplied the firearm used in the killing, which took place on 27 January 1989.

In June 2007, the Canadian High Commission in South Africa declined to grant Winnie Mandela a visa to travel to Toronto, Canada, where she was scheduled to attend a gala fundraising concert organised by arts organisation MusicaNoir, which included the world premiere of The Passion of Winnie, an opera based on her life.

Among other things, she also claimed that Mandela was no longer " accessible " to her daughters.

On 14 March 2010 a statement was issued on behalf of Winnie Mandela claiming that the interview was a " fabrication ".

Mandela was first portrayed by Alfre Woodard in the TV movie Mandela.

Nelson Mandela practiced Nguni stick fighting as a child, and it was featured on the Discovery and BBC reality TV show Last Man Standing.

* Opposition against Apartheid in South Africa and worldwide grows to a mass international condemnation of racial segregation policies comes to a peak by December 1989 in the Springbok summit when SA President de Klerk grants clemency to imprisoned ANC activist Nelson Mandela who was released in February 1990.

However, due to the fact that Mandela was only the Inkosi's child by a wife of the Ixhiba lineage, a so-called " Left-Hand House ", the descendants of his cadet branch of the Thembu royal family remain ineligible to succeed to the Thembu throne, which is itself one of the several traditional seats that are still officially recognized by South Africa's government.

Like the House of Battenberg in Europe, Mandela's family has since rehabilitated its dynastic status to some extent: Mandela was still in prison when his daughter Zenani was married to Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini in 1973, elder brother of King Mswati III of Swaziland.

* 1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.

He lifted the ban on the African National Congress ( ANC ) and released Nelson Mandela.

de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela will be released the next day.

* February 11 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa, after 27 years behind bars.

Sam Nujoma was sworn in as the first President of Namibia watched by Nelson Mandela ( who had been released from prison shortly beforehand ) and representatives from 147 countries, including 20 heads of state.

The film culminates with recently released anti-apartheid activist and future South African president Nelson Mandela, quoting one of Malcolm X's speeches.

In 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released, the students of Men's Res, on East Campus, unofficially renamed the lawn outside their residence " Mandela Square ".

He was imprisoned for 11 years in the same prison as Nelson Mandela, and was released in 1992.

On 2 February 1990, the African National Congress was legalised, and Nelson Mandela was released after twenty-seven years of imprisonment.

However, he consistently declined homeland independence and political deals until Nelson Mandela was released from prison and the African National Congress was made legal.

In the final scene of the 1992 movie Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela — recently released after 27 years of political imprisonment — appears as a schoolteacher in a Soweto classroom.

On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after serving twenty-seven years on Robben Island.

Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute increased pressure on the government of South Africa to release Mandela, and in 1990, State President of South Africa Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Nelson Mandela would shortly be released from prison.

Mandela, who was effectively released from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl on 11 February 1990, persuaded Miriam Makeba to return to South Africa.

When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Ramaphosa was on the National Reception Committee.

It was banned in the country soon after it was released in 2002, and even Nelson Mandela had asked Ngema to apologize but Ngema refused.

As the longest-serving jailed black dissident when he we was released, he has been referred to as Cuba's Nelson Mandela.

He also portrayed Nelson Mandela in Goodbye Bafana ( also released under the name The Color of Freedom ).

When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 he was flown to Johannesburg landing at Lanseria Airport.

* 2 February – President FW de Klerk scraps apartheid and states that Nelson Mandela will be released

* 11 February – Nelson Mandela released from jail after serving 27 years.