NEWSCAST
There is probably in the politics of our time's most popular figure, universally admired and respected that Nelson Mandela, icon of the struggle against apartheid, former leader of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's first black president and Nobel of Peace. His release in 1990 after 27 years of captivity he began, working closely with the reformist President Frederik de Klerk, a complicated but ultimately successful transition from dictatorship to democracy white segregationist multiracial, that lit free elections won by the ANC, a government of unit and a new constitution. Between 1994 and 1999, Mandela, with his extraordinary charisma, his rejection of the radical measures and their sense of responsibility, set the political and economic pillars of the new South Africa, and mediated in conflicts on the continent, but left unresolved serious deficits social. Although retired from politics and despite his advanced age, the mythical statesman still active in a number of humanitarian causes.