Mandela hideaway restored for all

A hideaway used by Nelson Mandela when he was a political activist nearly half a century ago has been restored and opened as a museum.

Lilliesleaf Farm in the Rivonia suburb of Johannesburg was a site used by the African National Congress from which to launch its armed struggle against the apartheid state.

But leading members of the ANC were arrested there in 1963, and faced what became known as The Rivonia Trial. Mr Mandela and his colleagues were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.

The farm is just half an hour's drive from the centre of Johannesburg, and over the years, the plush suburb of Rivonia has grown up around it.

But back in the 1960s, this was an isolated place. It made Lilliesleaf an ideal "safe house" for members of the ANC's military wing ¿ Umkonto we Sizwe .

SOURCE: BBC NEWS (click to read full story)