The 2017 Protea celebrates Mandela’s contribution to the establishment of the ANC and the resistance movement. In 1961 Nelson Mandela went underground and Umkhonto weSizwe (MK, the armed wing of the ANC) was formed.The following year he left South Africa to seek support for the ANC and to undergo military training, returning on 23 July 1962.He was arrested in August that year, and went on trial in 1963: the infamous Rivonia Trial. Mandela was one of ten accused who received life sentences for sabotage.
 
The Uncirculated silver coin bears the same design as the proof coin: the principles of the Freedom Charter; the ten demands representing the peoples’ hopes and aspirations for a ‘new’ South Africa.