ANC member Denis Goldberg (pictured left) said he treasured the eight months he spent with Nelson Mandela as co-defendants in the Rivonia trial.

He recalled Mr Mandela’s four-hour speech from the dock, describing his “bearing of pride, of determination”.

“I liked him for his smile, his cheerfulness, his determination that we would be free, never giving up,” he said.

Philanthropist Dr Bertie Lubner, the co-founder of the charity, Afrika Tikkun, of which Mr Mandela was patron-in-chief, said the South African leader “never expressed a bad word” about his enemies. “It was always reconciliation.”