‘I am back and well,’ read the note handed to Andrew by Sisulu – a piece of dirty scrap paper. ‘The government has begun to formally engage me in talks … but I want to assure you that I will not make unilateral decisions … I will only deal with the conditions for negotiation and not the negotiations themselves,’ it concluded before Sisulu whisked it away to hide it in a pocket.

It came from Mandela and had been smuggled to his comrades through an unidentified common crime prisoner. The year was 1985, and Mandela had just been discharged from hospital, where he had been admitted for a prostate operation. His fellow ANC prisoners had not seen him since he was taken to hospital and only through rumour were they aware of his discharge. Although he had been moved back to Pollsmoor he had been placed in an isolation section, alone in a cell. Here, the government delegation led by the justice minister, Kobie Coetzee, had met with him in confidence and tried to coerce him to accept his release on condition he retreated to Transkei and effectively withdrew from politics. His isolation did not augur well with his fellow ANC prisoners. They did not know about his condition and that made them anxious. Mandela, too, was worried about his separation from his comrades, hence he had decided to smuggle a note to them. Rumours about his meetings with the government and his imminent release were doing the rounds everywhere. Sylvia later told Andrew about a ‘rumour out there that he was going to be released with “his friend” who would be sent to “Transkei”’. But she also pointed out that the government had denied this in the newspapers. ‘Hearing of secret negotiations assured us that the government was feeling the heat. There was light at the end of the tunnel,’ recalled Andrew. But trust in those negotiations seems to have taken time to develop. ‘Not knowing what Mandela was being told and what he was saying to those government delegations kept us on the edge.’

The situation in the country was tense. Within two years of its formation the UDF had united hundreds of civil organisations under it and helped establish new ones. The level of political activism was raised.