Nelson Mandela is one of the most notable leaders of our time. His journey for the destruction of the racist system that was apartheid was a painful one. The journey included at 27 year jail sentence which spanned from 1962 till 1990. Today reports released have disclosed that the arrest which led to his 27 year sentence was ignited by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. It turns out the the CIA gave a tip to the South African authorities and that tip led to the arrest of President Mandela.
It has long been a rumor that the CIA was keeping tabs on Nelson Mandela back when he was fighting to end apartheid. Evidence of this was all around one being the fact that Mandela was on the US terror list until 2008. Back in 1962 at the time of his arrest Mandela was the most wanted man in South Africa. Leader of the resistance movement and political party African National Congress, he spoke out against apartheid. He was very illusive and would continuously evade arrests from authorities. On the day he was arrested Mandela was posing as a Chauffeur. He approached a checkpoint where it appeared that the South African Government got lucky as he was recognized and detained. Today it has come to light that the detaining of Mandela was not the shot in the dark that authorities made it out to be. It turns out that authorities knew how and when Nelson was coming. This was made possible by a tip that was given to South African Authorities by Ex CIA agent Donald Rickard. Rickard passed away earlier this year but before passing away was interviewed by a director for a movie about Mandela. Rickard was quoted as saying
“I found out when he was coming down and how he was coming… that’s where I was involved and that’s where Mandela was caught,”
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After serving his 27 year sentence Mandela became the first Black President of South Africa. The revelations however brings about the question of whether or not the United States Government supported Apartheid in South Africa. A bill has been brought forth by Howard Berman for the CIA to release Documents on the incident. The bill combined with the release of this film is believed to be an attempt to pressure the CIA to release documents on their observation of Mandela and their support for Apartheid. It is unknown whether or not if the CIA will comply as previous attempts to disclose documents have been unsuccessful.
