"In his book Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela wrote that as a leading member of the ANC’s executive committee, he had ‘personally signed off’ in approving these acts of terrorism. This is the horror which Mandela had ‘signed off’ for while he was in prison – convicted for other acts of terrorism after the Rivonia trial. The late SA president PW Botha told Mandela in 1985 that he could be a free man as long as he did just one thing: ‘publicly renounce violence’. Mandela refused.”
And as Lee Jenkins also notes, “Tellingly, not only did Mandela refuse to renounce violence, Amnesty refused to take his case stating ‘[the] movement recorded that it could not give the name of “Prisoner of Conscience” to anyone associated with violence, even though as in “conventional warfare” a degree of restraint may be exercised’.”
He continues, “Despite being synonymous with freedom and democracy, Mandela was never afraid to glad hand the thugs and tyrants of the international arena. General Sani Abacha seized power in Nigeria in a military coup in November 1993. From the start of his presidency, in May 1994, Nelson Mandela refrained from publicly condemning Abacha’s actions. Up until the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in November 1995 the ANC government vigorously opposed the imposition of sanctions against Nigeria…" Source: http://beta.iol.co.za/news/politics/brothers-and-sisters-learn-from-mandela-490202
