Forgiveness gesture in accepting Nobel prize

JOHANNESBURG

Two decades ago in Oslo, Norway, Nelson Mandela and South Africa’s last apartheid president F.W. de Klerk stood side by side and accepted the Nobel peace prize, a moment that epitomised the reconciliation of enemies.

But that powerful gesture of forgiveness on December 10, 1993, might never have happened.

When it became clear that Mandela would receive the prestigious award with a man who ensured he spent 27 years in prison, he came under fierce pressure to decline.

When the telephone rang on October 15, 1993, with the Nobel committee’s decision, “the reaction was quite strong and some of us were very hesitant about supporting the joint thing with De Klerk,” African National Congress stalwart Tokyo Sexwale told AFP.

Talks with De Klerk’s government were already at an advanced stage, and the two men often sparred bitterly.

All-race elections had been slated for April, 1994.

ANC leaders pointed out that Albert Luthuli and Bishop Desmond Tutu had won the prize earlier as individuals.

“So we were saying, Nelson Mandela doesn’t need it with another person, and above all with a man who had just jailed him,” Mr Sexwale said.

“But it’s (Mandela) himself who convinced us about the correctness of what was happening, that reconciliation is not an easy thing,” he said.