Nelson Mandela was on US terror list until 2008

Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who passed away last night following recurring lung infection, had remained on the United States terrorism watch list until 2008.

South Africa's apartheid regime had designated Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) as a terrorist organization for its battle against the nation's legalized system of racial segregation that lasted from 1948 to 1994, the Huffington Post reports.

Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former US President Ronald Reagan also described ANC as a "typical terrorist organization" in 1987, refusing to impose sanctions on South Africa's apartheid regime, the report added.

However in 1986, former Vice President Dick Cheney voted along with the members of the House against a non-binding resolution to recognize the ANC and call on the South African government to release Mandela from prison.

Later, then-President George W. Bush signed a bill removing Mandela from the US terror list.