25 July 1991: Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro during Mandela's historic visit to Cuba soon after he was released from prison. (Photograph by Lily Franey/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he asked me to write his speeches. At one point, Thabo Mbeki and myself were both designated as official speech writers. I didn’t think Mbeki was so keen and I certainly was not very keen, because my main job was as ANC head of political education and that entailed a great deal of work.
However, I did put a lot of effort into writing the speeches, because I understood that everything you wrote for Mandela would become historic, so you had to ensure that you chose every word carefully. I remember at the time that if I was asked to do a speech, I would go home in the afternoon and bring it in the next morning. Carol Paton, who is now the editor-at-large at