Personalities
Nelson Mandela: a profile of his public work
Legal practice, political organisation, negotiations and public service in South Africa.
What this record covers
Selected public-career milestones through 2013. Institutional accounts differ on some early dates; this record preserves those limits rather than inventing precision.
Position at the coverage date
A historical record of Mandela’s public work. He served one presidential term and died in December 2013. [s1] [s2] [s3] [s4] [s5] [s6]
Record details
- South African public life
- Mandela’s public career included anti-apartheid activism and the presidency of democratic South Africa. [s3]
- Law and education
- He practised with Oliver Tambo in Johannesburg. The Foundation distinguishes his early legal qualification from the LLB he completed in 1989. [s1]
- Organising and leadership
- The government account records his Youth League involvement and role as national volunteer-in-chief in the 1952 Defiance Campaign. [s3]
- Negotiating a transition
- The Nobel biography describes his participation in negotiations leading towards a multiracial democracy. [s2]
- Nobel recognition
- The Nobel institution records the Peace Prize shared with F. W. de Klerk in 1993. [s2]
- After the presidency
- The Foundation records continuing work with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the establishment of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Mandela Rhodes Foundation. [s1]
Sources & evidence
- [s1] www.nelsonmandela.org
- [s2] www.nobelprize.org
- [s3] www.gov.za
- [s4] www.bbc.com
- [s5] www.bbc.co.uk
- [s6] www.bbc.co.uk
Public update history
— Compared institutional accounts, retaining documented date precision and source disagreements.
— Titles and explanatory text passed the copywriting and source-consistency checks. Sources and data are unchanged.