SOUTH AFRICA: NELSON MANDELA (4)

(11 Feb 2000) English/Nat

Ten years ago today (Thursday) Nelson Mandela emerged from prison, punching the air defiantly.

For millions of people it meant the end of decades of oppression and the anniversary is a chance to relive those heady times.

Mandela marked the occasion by returning to his birthplace and visiting the three sites of a new museum dedicated to his extraordinary life.

In Mandela's birthplace, dancers celebrated the life of their most remarkable son.

For black South Africans his release from prison a decade ago symbolised a huge victory in the struggle against a brutal system of white rule.

Four years later apartheid collapsed.

In South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994 Mandela became president and stretched out a hand of forgiveness to his former oppressors.

Last year he gracefully stepped down from office, but he still continues to play a leading role in public life.

On Thursday Mandela returned to Mveso, in the Eastern Cape, to take part in their joy.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We're celebrating something that's absolutely invaluable in our history. An epoch, a phenomenon, where a man was born here through all kinds of tribulation to lead us to freedom."
SUPER CAPTION: Ben Ngubane, Minister for Arts and Culture

The euphoria of watching Mandela walk free on February 11, 1990, has largely faded and been replaced by the cold realisation that huge challenges confront South Africa.

The post-apartheid government is struggling to give millions of South Africans, if not the good life, at least the basics.

But on Friday at least, people have been happy to just remember the events surrounding their hero's historic release.

UPSOUND: Nelson Mandela speaking to crowd.

The former president told the gathered crowds that there was still a lot of work ahead before South Africa truly becomes a nation of the free.

These days Mandela is often seen in Qunu, walking in the hills near these foundations -- the home where he grew up.

Little is left of the hut where the former president was born 81 years ago in this tiny village in the impoverished Transkei region of South Africa's Eastern Cape province.

A stone and wood monument containing a series of photographs of Mandela has been erected near the foundations of the hut.

It is part of the three-part Mandela museum.

Later in the day, Mandela travelled to nearby Qunu, where women performed a traditional dance of the Xhosa people, Mandela's ethnic group.

In Qunu, the town where Mandela lived until he was nine, the former president broke ground on a new youth centre which will be dedicated to him.

It's aimed at giving poor black youths a better chance in life.

Qunu will also be the home to a cultural centre that will make up the Nelson Mandela museum.

Hundreds more were gathered in the nearby town of Umtata, Mandela's final stop of the day and the site of the main museum.

Mandela arrived to more cheering crowds in the town of Umtata, where a museum dedicated to his struggle against apartheid and his presidency was opened.

He told the gathered crowd that they should all share in the triumph over apartheid, saying all black South Africans, in some way, took part in the struggle.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Amongst you there, there are many who have never been forced into exile, who never went underground and who were never jailed, but who nevertheless in various ways were of great help to our struggle. We are the architects of the campaign to destroy white supremacy in this county. We are the king makers of the modern history of South Africa."



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