It is with great sense of joy and fulfillment celebrating with millions of Africans on the birthday anniversary of an icon and a living legend Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela the epitome of African justice and human freedom. I join all gathered elsewhere in the world to wish him a very many happy and prosperous returns.
Born at Qunu, near Umtata on 18 July 1918. His father, Henry Mgadla Mandela, was chief councillor to Thembuland's acting paramount chief David Dalindyebo. When his father died, Mandela became the chief's ward and was groomed for the chieftainship.
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Mandela matriculated at Healdtown Methodist Boarding School and then started a BA degree at Fort Hare. As an SRC member he participated in a student strike and was expelled, along with the late Oliver Tambo, in 1940. He completed his degree by correspondence from Johannesburg, did articles of clerkship and enrolled for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1944 he helped found the ANC Youth League, whose Programme of Action was adopted by the ANC in 1949. Mandela was elected national volunteer-in-chief of the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He travelled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation.
He was given a suspended sentence for his part in the campaign. Shortly afterwards a banning order confined him to Johannesburg for six months. During this period he formulated the "M Plan", in terms of which ANC branches were broken down into underground cells.
By 1952 Mandela and Tambo had opened the first black legal firm in the country, and Mandela was both Transvaal president of the ANC and deputy national president.
A petition by the Transvaal Law Society to strike Mandela off the roll of attorneys was refused by the Supreme Court. For the second half of the 'fifties, he was one of the accused in the Treason Trial. With Duma Nokwe, he conducted the defence.
When the ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, he was detained until 1961 when he went underground to lead a campaign for a new national convention.
In 1962 Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria and to arrange training for other MK members.
On his return he was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He conducted his own defence. He was convicted and jailed for five years in November 1962. While serving his sentence, he was charged, in the Rivonia trial, with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment. A decade before being imprisoned, Mandela had spoken out against the introduction of Bantu Education, recommending that community activists "make every home, every shack or rickety structure a centre of learning".
Robben Island, where he was imprisoned, became a centre for learning, and Mandela was a central figure in the organised political education classes.
In prison Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other prisoners. Mandela has honorary degrees from more than 50 international universities and is chancellor of the University of the North. He was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994 - June 1999.
Madiba as he is fondly called has proven that he is destined to be leader as he has affected the lives of millions of Africans. From prison to presidency, he has institutionalized himself as a pacifist and symbol of democracy through the use of non-violence and civil disobedience in achieving set goals and objectives for freedom, democratic values, human rights, equity and good governance for humanity. Your passion for good governance is unimaginable, your faith in our continental development is beyond human comprehension and your service to humanity is legendary. As you celebrate another anniversary, I pray God in his infinity mercies to keep you alive, so we can continually tap from your rivers of wisdom. Nelson Mandela retired from Public life in June 1999. He currently resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADIBA!!!
Signed
Clifford Ogbeide
12 The Oaks Bracnell
RG12 2XG Berkshire UK
[email protected]
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