Mandela's African National Congress had won about 62 percent of the vote in the country's first elections open to all races that April. The inauguration drew leaders and dignitaries from around the world and was watched on television by an estimated one billion people. Thabo Mbeki and the outgoing president, F. W. de Klerk, were sworn in as deputy presidents in a government of national unity. Mandela promised a country in which all South Africans could "walk tall, without any fear in their hearts".
The ceremony took place at the Union Buildings, the seat of a government that had imprisoned Mandela for most of his adult life. Among the guests were US Vice President Al Gore, Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat, as well as some of Mandela's former jailers.
In his speech, Mandela spoke of "an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long" and declared that "never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another". He ended with the words "Let freedom reign. The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!"
As the ceremony ended, South African Air Force jets flew overhead trailing the colors of the new national flag, adopted only weeks earlier. The generals who led the military saluted their new commander-in-chief. Mandela served one five-year term and stepped down in 1999, as he had promised.
Key people: Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, F. W. de Klerk