South Africans celebrate 20 years of Mandela's release (Roundup)

Feb 11, 2010, 11:22 GMT

Cape Town - Thousands of South Africans on Thursday joined in celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of former president Nelson Mandela's release from prison, watching re-enactment of his historic walk to freedom at his former jail.

The world's cameras were again trained on Drakenstein Correctional Centre (formerly Victor Verster prison), east of Cape Town, where Mandela memorably took his first steps as a free man after 27 years in prison on February 11, 1990.

That historic moment, one of the defining moments of the 20th century, paved the way for the progressive dismantling of racist apartheid rule in South Africa and the country's first democratic elections four years later.

Ahmed Kathrada, an anti-apartheid veteran, who was sentenced along with Mandela and six others to life imprisonment in 1964 for sabotage, and a handful of ruling African National Congress (ANC) heavyweights, including former secretary-general Cyril Ramaphosa, kickstarted the proceedings with a short symbolic walk through the prison gates.

Later, ANC leaders and leaders of the allied Communist Party and trade union movement, addressed a rally on the prison football field of about 5,000 supporters, many of them clad in yellow ANC t-shirts bearing the image of Mandela's face.

Mandela's ex-wife Madikizela-Mandela, who walked hand-in-hand with him from jail 20 years ago, had been due to headline the event but was absent.

Mandela, 91, was also not in attendance, as had been expected, but was scheduled to attend the opening of parliament later on Thursday in Cape Town, where President Jacob Zuma will deliver the annual State of the Nation speech.

Throughout the morning, on local and international television and radio stations, politicians, activists, journalists and ordinary South Africa recalled their memories of the day, including their excitement at seeing the man, whose image had been banned from publication for three decades.

'I expected to see someone who looked like a boxer!,' former telecommunications minister Jay Naidoo said. Instead, a slender, silver-haired statesman emerged from prison and had to borrow a pair of reading glasses before delivering a speech to a hastily-organized monster rally in Cape Town.

Speaking to Johannesburg-based The Star newspaper, Madikizela-Mandela spoke of a bitter-sweet moment, when the nation gained a father but the Mandela family lost a spouse and a father to politics.

'Tragically, history marked the end of our lives as a family,' she said, sentiments echoed by her daughters Zenani and Zindzi to the paper in its Thursday edition.

In 1994, Mandela's ANC swept to victory in the country's first multiracial elections on a promise of a 'better life for all.'

But the economic prosperity black South Africans believed would flow from their political liberation has been slower in coming.

While the government has built over 2 million houses for the poor and brought electricity to most parts of the country, many in the country of 48 million people still live in poverty.

Zuma was due to address these challenges in his parliamentary address.