30 years after Mandela's Nobel Prize, SA faces stark choice: poverty or growth – IRR
5 December 2023
Nelson Mandela’s conviction – expressed in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech 30 years ago this month – that in their new democracy all South Africans would enjoy the right to “life, liberty, prosperity, human rights and good governance" remains true today, despite the catastrophic and tragic failure of the ANC to make good on this vision.
It was in December 1993 that Mandela and FW de Klerk jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the dismantling of apartheid.
In his acceptance speech, Mandela spoke of the immense potential of South Africa, looking forward to a future in which all the country’s people would “live like the children of paradise”.
Mandela said: “The value of our shared reward will and must be measured by the joyful peace which will triumph, because the common humanity that bonds both black and white into one human race, will have said to each one of us that we shall all live like the children of paradise.