On June 26 1980, a rally was hosted to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Freedom Charter. On the posters advertising it were the words that started a campaign that would become the hallmark of the anti-apartheid movement and impact on the leadership of post-apartheid SA well into the future: “Free Nelson Mandela”.

Until then, the SA liberation movement was a story of collective leadership. By the very nature of the diversity of views, divergence on tactics and the need for spreading the risks, no one leader had been singled out as the focus on the movement. ..