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GLASGOW was the first city in the UK to award the imprisoned Nelson Mandela his freedom - symbolically bestowing him the keys to the city in 1981 in what was a hugely controversial move.

The UK government had strained relations with the apartheid regime but Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused to impose sanctions claiming that it would hit the poorest people the hardest.

News of Labour-controlled Glasgow’s move found its way to Mr Mandela’s prison cell despite severe restrictions on information getting to him.

He later revealed that he had heard of what the city did.

Three years later he was elected Honorary Member of the Students’ Association, University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde and the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen was conferred on both Nelson and Winnie Mandela.

Better still, Glasgow City Coucil renamed St George’s Place in his honour in 1986 meaning that all the mail for the South African consulate had to be delivered to its new address on Nelson Mandela Square.

In 1990 Glasgow’s Caledonian University was the first to award him an honorary doctorate upon his release from prison in recognition of his leadership during the anti-apartheid movement.

In 1997 the City of Edinburgh also bestowed the honour of freedom of the city upon him.

While locked up on Robben Island, Margaret Thatcher described his African National Congress as a “typical terrorist organisation.”

Although a hero of the anti-apartheid movement Mandela remained on a US terror watch list until 2008.

By the time the man himself visited a rain-soaked Glasgow on Sunday afternoon in 1993 that had all changed. The greeting was rapturous.

The Glasgow initiative came ahead of a massive “Release Mandela Campaign” launched in 1982, both within South Africa and abroad.

This included worldwide celebrations of Mandela’s 70th birthday in 1988, marked by a 12-hour music concert at Wembley Stadium broadcast to an audience of more than half a billion people in 70 countries around the world.

In 1993 Mandela gave a speech to Scotland in Glasgow as he picked up the scroll awarded to him years before. It is cherished and held for the public by the city’s Mitchell Library.

He said: “It is with humility and gratitude that I accept this scroll which symbolises the freedom which have been granted to me.

“I wish to express my appreciation for the honour which has been bestowed upon me by the councillors and citizens of the city of Aberdeen, the City of Dundee, the City of Glasgow, the London Borough of Greenwich, the Borough of Islwyn, the City of Kingston upon Hull, the District of Midlothian the City of Newcastle Upon Tyne and the City of Sheffield.

“Glasgow will always enjoy a distinguished place in the records of the international campaign against apartheid.

“While we were physically denied our freedom in the country of our birth, a city 6,000 miles away, and as renowned as Glasgow, refused to accept the legitimacy of the apartheid system and declared us to be free.

“It resolved to do everything possible to secure our freedom from the prisons of apartheid. It took up our plight in Britain and internationally. For example, in 1981 the then Lord Provost co-ordinated a declaration signed by over one thousand mayors from 56 countries across the world which called for our freedom.

“Then in 1985 it joined with over 100 British local authorities in petitioning the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, to press for my release. Such initiatives were thankfully successful.

“It is a simple message. Today, I and the majority of our people, still do not enjoy the most precious of freedoms - the right to vote.”

At Glasgow City Chambers the flag will fly at half mast and will remain that way until his funeral is held.

A book of condolence will also be available to sign in the city chambers foyer.