A founder of the armed wing of the African National Congress, Ronnie Kasrils worked closely with Mandela after first meeting him in 1962. Kasrils was a leading anti-apartheid underground activist, and on the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress from 1987 to 2007. He was also a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party from December 1986 to 2007. Kasrils served as minister for intelligence in post-apartheid South Africa from 2004 to 2008. His late wife, Eleanor, was a Scottish-South African anti-apartheid activist, whose story he recalled in his 2011 book, "The Unlikely Secret Agent." His autobiography is "Armed and Dangerous: My Undercover Struggle Against Apartheid."

Nelson Mandela South Africa