Presidency of Nelson Mandela
The presidency of Nelson Mandela began on 10 May 1994, when Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist, leader of uMkhonto we Sizwe, lawyer, and former political prisoner, was inaugurated as President of South Africa, and ended on 14 June 1999. He was the first non-White head of state in the history of South Africa, taking office at the age of 75. His age was taken into consideration as part of his decision to not seek re-election in 1999.[1]
Election[edit]
The 1994 general election, held on 27 April, was South Africa's first multi-racial election with full enfranchisement. The African National Congress won a 63 percent share of the vote at the election, and Mandela, as leader of the ANC, was inaugurated on 10 May 1994 as the country's first Black President, with the National Party's F.W. de Klerk as his first deputy and Thabo Mbeki as the second in the Government of National Unity.[2]
1996[edit]
In 1996, Mandela divorced his estranged wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Thabo Mbeki became the sole deputy president of South Africa in June as a result of F. W. de Klerk's resignation from joint office. In July that year, Mandela confirmed that he would not be seeking re-election to the presidency in 1999.
1997[edit]
Lockerbie trial[edit]
President Mandela took a particular interest in helping to resolve the long-running dispute between Gaddafi's Libya, on one hand, and the United States and UK on the other, over bringing to trial the two Libyans who were indicted in November 1991, and accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, which subsequently broke apart and fell to and near Lockerbie, Scotland, UK on 21 December 1988, with the loss of 270 lives.[6] As early as 1992, Mandela informally approached US President George H. W. Bush with a proposal to have the two indicted Libyans tried in a third country. Bush reacted favourably to the proposal, as did President François Mitterrand of France and King Juan Carlos I of Spain.[7] In November 1994 – six months after his election as president – Mandela formally proposed that South Africa should be the venue for the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial.[8]
However, UK Prime Minister John Major flatly rejected the idea, saying that the UK Government did not have confidence in foreign courts.[9] A further three years elapsed until Mandela's offer was repeated to Major's successor, Tony Blair, when Mandela visited London in July 1997. Later during the same year, at the 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Edinburgh in October 1997, Mandela warned:
1998[edit]
In South Africa's first post-apartheid military operation, acting president Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi[10] (who was South Africa's third in command after Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki) ordered troops into Lesotho in September 1998 to protect the government of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili. This came after a disputed election prompted fierce opposition threatening the unstable government.
On his 80th birthday in 1998, Mandela married Graça Machel, the widow of former Mozambican president Samora Machel. She remains the first and only woman in history to serve as First Lady of two countries.
Legacy[edit]
AIDS/HIV policy[edit]
Commentators and critics including AIDS activists such as Edwin Cameron have criticised Mandela for his government's ineffectiveness in stemming the AIDS crisis.[12][13] After his retirement, Mandela admitted that he may have failed his country by not paying more attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.[14][15] After that Mandela spoke out on several occasions against the AIDS epidemic.[16][17]
Clothing design[edit]
After assuming the presidency, one of Mandela's trademarks was his use of batik T-shirts, known as the "Madiba shirts", even on formal occasions.[18]