Ireland–South Africa relations as premature. The Irish embassy opened in Pretoria in 1994. From the early 1960s Ireland vehemently opposed apartheid in South Africa. South African Nelson Mandela, then a dissident, later president, was awarded the Freedom of the City of Dublin in 1988 while a political prisoner; he collected the award upon his release in 1990. Diplomatic ties between the two countries were established in 1994. In November 2003, Brian Cowen, while touring Africa as Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, promised South African President Thabo Mbeki that Ireland would highlight African problems when it ascended to the Council Presidency of the European
Flag of South Africa (1928–1994) the name of the town to Makhado. Some South Africans in the 21st century started to fly the flag as a protest against what they perceived as the failure of the ANC to make progress in governing South Africa as a democracy. At Cape Town's Castle of Good Hope, the flag was flown from the castle alongside the Union Jack, flag of the Netherlands and the current flag of South Africa to display the powers that ruled South Africa through history. In 1994 it was agreed that they would remain on the castle parapet as historical reference. However, in 2012