The members and representatives of the African National Congress (ANC), including Nelson Mandela, were placed on the U.S. Terrorist Watch List during the 1970s when American foreign policy was dominated by the Republican Party and closely aligned with the Apartheid regime for strategic reasons.
This was an era in which the ANC was actively engaged in a liberation struggle to free oppressed South Africans from the racist system of Apartheid.
Consequently, the Apartheid government declared the ANC a terrorist organization and persuaded many of its political allies, including the United States, to do the same....

CAPE TOWN, South Africa—The ruling African National Congress won two-thirds of council seats in local elections, according to final results released Saturday.