Mandela was a wise and well educated man who deserves praise for sticking to his principles and fighting for the freedom of his people.... and stopping the infighting once they had managed to topple the government at the time.
He was however a 'figurehead', there were tens, hundreds or maybe thousands of others risking their lives for the cause on a daily basis, both in the SA Government and the ANC, they did the work behind closed doors, in secret, they deserve massive praise for their achievement and the groundwork for Maldela to become who he was.