In commemoration of the 22nd anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from jail, Mandela's image will be printed on five new South African bank notes — 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 rand.
Announcing the news, current president, Jacob Zuma, said,
“It is my honour and pleasure to announce that new South African banknotes will bear the image of President Mandela, the first President of a free, democratic South Africa."
“It is a befitting tribute to a man who became a symbol of this country’s struggle for freedom, human rights and democracy."
“With this humble gesture, we are expressing our deep gratitude as the South African people, to a life spent in service of the people of this country and in the cause of humanity worldwide.”
The notes will feature an image of Mandela taken in 1990, the year of his release.
In 1962, Mandela was arrested and convicted of sabotage, along with other crimes, and sentenced to life in prison.
A front-line anti-apartheid campaigner within the African National Congress (ANC), Mandela was one of the forming members and subsequent leader of the ANC's military wing - MK or Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).
The ANC was outlawed as an unlawful organisation in 1960, and was until 2008, on the United States' terrorism watch list, along side Nelson Mandela and other ANC members.
In 1964, during his trial, Mandela defended the actions of the ANC and the justification for the actions of Umkhonto we Sizwe, in a speech - 'An ideal for which I am prepared to die'.
See here for speech in full and original recording.
Extracts reproduced below:
"Some of the things so far told to the court are true and some are untrue. I do not, however, deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness, nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation, and oppression of my people by the whites."
"I admit immediately that I was one of the persons who helped to form Umkhonto we Sizwe. I deny that Umkhonto was responsible for a number of acts which clearly fell outside the policy of the organisation, and which have been charged in the indictment against us. I, and the others who started the organisation, felt that without violence there would be no way open to the African people to succeed in their struggle against the principle of white supremacy. All lawful modes of expressing opposition to this principle had been closed by legislation, and we were placed in a position in which we had either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or to defy the government. We chose to defy the law."
"We first broke the law in a way which avoided any recourse to violence; when this form was legislated against, and then the government resorted to a show of force to crush opposition to its policies, only then did we decide to answer violence with violence."
"Each disturbance pointed to the inevitable growth among Africans of the belief that violence was the only way out - it showed that a government which uses force to maintain its rule teaches the oppressed to use force to oppose it."
"I came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be unrealistic to continue preaching peace and non-violence. This conclusion was not easily arrived at. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle. I can only say that I felt morally obliged to do what I did."
"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
