The prime minster briefly raised the importance of freeing the ANC leader with her South African counterpart, PW Botha, but had little success, documents show
Margaret Thatcher did little to press for the release of Nelson Mandela during her time in office, newly-released Government papers suggest.
Mrs Thatcher met with P W Botha, the South African prime minister, in 1984. At the time Mandela was detained at Pollsmoor Prison, serving a life sentence for attempting to overthrow the government, and had become an international symbol of the opposition to apartheid.
A report of Thatcher's meeting with Botha, released today by the National Archives, shows they did not discuss Mandela's controversial detention despite the attention he was receiving and an insistence from the Foreign Office beforehand that she should.
The files show Thatcher did raise the issue during a short pre-meeting, but with little success.
A report states: "She took the opportunity to raise the case of Nelson Mandela.
