19890712_Andy_TheStar

This Andy cartoon records the gradual progress from Robben Island towards Mandela's eventual release, with the final hurdle being "Die Groot Krokodil", as PW Botha had become known. Within weeks Botha would be deposed in a bloodless coup from within his own party, and replaced by FW de Klerk who would release Mandela  the following February.

This is one of the earliest depictions of Mandela's face by a South African cartoonist. The cartoonist had to imagine how the prisoner looked, his image having been banned for the 27 years while he was imprisoned. Artists and cartoonists mostly assumed that Mandela carried the same weight he had when he was sent to jail in 1964.