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South African President Nelson Mandela bids farewell RELATED VIDEO Natural sound video of soldiers voting, and election officials visiting elderly who cannont get to the polls Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K  ALSO: South African parties make 11th-hour bid to woo voters

May 31, 1999
Web posted at: 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT)

In this story: Nearly three decades in jail 'Go to the ballot box' Poverty, illiteracy pose problems Skirmish outside stadium RELATED STORIES, SITES

SOWETO, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africans thronged to a stadium in Soweto township on Sunday to say goodbye to President Nelson Mandela as he departs his country's political stage.

Mandela, 80, will be remembered as a giant who rose from rural obscurity to defeat South Africa's long-standing racial apartheid policy. He leaves office as one of the world's best-loved statesmen.

Some 80,000 supporters packed the stadium outside Johannesburg in a jubilant "Thank you" rally for Mandela, who urged supporters to endorse his heir in this week's national elections, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki.

The rally brought to a climax the campaign for South Africa's second free and democratic vote since the fall of apartheid.

Nearly three decades in jail

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Mandela, spent 27 years in jail, emerging with dignity and preaching reconcilation to a nation ravaged by centuries of white domination of the black majority.

Among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid in 1960, he was quick to embrace forgiveness when the white minority rulers eased their grip on power 30 years later.

"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities," Mandela said in one of his most famous speeches, delivered to the court that found him guilty of trying to overthrow the apartheid government in 1964 -- a capital offense.

In April 1994 Mandela led the African National Congress to a crushing victory in South Africa's first all-race elections. He was inaugurated as president the following month.

On Sunday, raucous chants of "ANC! ANC!" greeted Mandela and Mbeki, as they entered the stadium on a golf cart and circled the field, waving ANC flags to the crowd.

Mandela, who plans to retire on June 16, used his speech to reflect on the decades-long anti-apartheid struggle, which he led even while jailed.

'Go to the ballot box'

"We have walked a long and hard path to arrive here," he said. "Our children, our brothers, our sisters, our mothers and fathers have suffered so we could claim our freedom."

He then urged supporters to turn out in heavy numbers in Wednesday's election.

"I call upon you to go to the ballot box in your millions to give President Mbeki and the ANC the mandate they need to accelerate the transformation (of the country)."

The ANC is widely expected to win the election with about 60 percent of the vote, but Mandela and Mbeki made a final effort to mobilize their supporters to ensure an overwhelming mandate.

Poverty, illiteracy pose problems

"Despite huge gains, too many of you remain homeless, poor and illiterate. The struggle did not end five years ago," Mandela said, referring to the nation's first all-race election in 1994.

"Reversing 350 years of oppression will take more than five years," he said.

Mbeki told the crowd: "To vote for the ANC means peace, to vote for the ANC means progress, to vote for the ANC means a better life for all of our people. No other party is working on those plans except the ANC."

But elsewhere in South Africa, opposition parties were working hard to secure second place or a small foothold in the 400-seat National Assembly.

"The ANC government is failing to administer our fledgling democracy," said United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa. "This country is moving towards totalitarianism. Mr. Mbeki must know very well that the honeymoon is over."

Skirmish outside stadium

Outside the stadium in Khayelitsha township, where Holomisa was speaking, violence broke out between supporters of the UDM and ANC. At least two ANC supporters were injured when several UDM backers opened fire with handguns.

UDM supporters complained that the ANC backers were harassing people entering the stadium.

In the Eastern Cape stronghold of the ANC, Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi campaigned for his Inkatha Freedom Party, which is likely to see its national influence cut substantially from the 10 percent it won in 1994.

Buthelezi slammed the ANC's record on crime, which has spread under democratic rule from the black townships of apartheid into former white suburban and business areas.

"The statistics of crime are horrifying. Many of our communities are living in a state of terror," he said.

Crime is a key issue for the parties vying for second place, the Democratic Party (DP) and the New National Party (NNP) -- which, as the National Party, imposed and then dismantled apartheid in the 46 years before the 1994 surrender of white power.

DP leader Tony Leon, trying to topple the NNP as the official political opposition, said Sunday that only his mainly white party could temper the immense power of the ANC.

"Only the DP has the guts to stand up to the ANC," Leon said, to cheers from a surprisingly black-dominated crowd at a concert stadium just east of downtown Johannesburg.

Opinion polls indicate that the NNP could see its share of the vote drop from 20 percent in 1994 to as little as seven or eight percent.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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