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WorldView

Nelson Mandela Celebrates a Decade of Freedom

Aired February 11, 2000 - 6:16 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: It was 10 years ago Friday that Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison, a step in a journey that led to his election as president of South Africa.

CNN's Tom Mintier reports on the anniversary celebrations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It has been a decade since this picture flashed across television screens across the world: Nelson Mandela walking out the front door of Victor Verster Prison near Capetown. For South Africa, it marked the beginning of change and the end of the apartheid era.

BEN NGANE, MINISTER OF ART & CULTURE: We sat glued to the TV screens, and everybody jumped up when Madiba appeared. It was tremendous.

MINTIER: Now, after 10 years, the man who went from political prisoner to president celebrates the anniversary as a senior statesman.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a wonderful day. It signifies the people's dream. The freedom has come at least, not only to our province or to our country but to the whole of Africa.

MINTIER: Now 81 years old, Nelson Mandela looks to bring peace to other parts of war-torn Africa. He stepped down as president a year ago, after being elected in South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994.

Much has changed since Mandela's release from prison, but unemployment remains high, despite job creation being a major goal for the post-apartheid government. While some parts of the economy are doing well, poverty is widespread.

To mark the occasion of his release from prison, Nelson Mandela on Friday opened a museum bearing his name at Umtata in the Eastern Cape area.

In the village where he was born on July 18, 1918, a monument was unveiled near the simple mud hut where Mandela lived during his youth. But to South Africans, it was the later years that are now being remembered. Ahmed Kathrada spent 25 years in prison with Nelson Mandela.

AHMED KATHRADA, FORMER PRISONER: Great men also, sometimes in history, make a decisive intervention that changes the course of history. Madiba, as an individual leader, made that decisive intervention, which changed the whole course of South African history.

MINTIER: For Nelson Mandela the man it is an anniversary he probably thought he would never celebrate. Despite being handed a life sentence, he told the court in 1963 that his dream was to live in a democratic and free society, a reality he and other South Africans now celebrate.

Tom Mintier, CNN, Johannesburg, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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