When Nelson Mandela First Emerged to Freedom

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The day in 1990 that Nelson Mandelawalked to freedom, I waited hours in the hot sun outside cityhall in downtown Cape Town, in a crowd of thousands of blacksand mixed-race coloreds dying to glimpse their hoped-for savior.Mandela, who died today at 95, had been locked away in prisonfor more than 27 years. As it happened, the excitement ofwitnessing history that day was tarnished by mishaps.

The mood grew ugly because of a five-hour delay in hisscheduled arrival, partly due to his wife, Winnie, who hadfailed to show up on time at the Victor Verster Prison, 45minutes outside Cape Town, where Mandela was last held. Somehotheaded youths had taken to skirmishing with police around thefringes. Gunshots and tear gas were in the air, while coloredthieves were hard at work pickpocketing whites and blacks alike,even foreign journalists like myself. (I lost a tape recorderripped from my hands.)