Nelson Mandela and other members of the ANC had until yesterday still been officially listed as terrorists by the US State Department.
However they are to be removed from U.S. terrorism watch lists under a bill President Bush signed Tuesday.
Mandela and other members of the African National Congress were on the list because of their fight against South Africa's apartheid regime, which gave way to majority rule in 1994.
The apartheid regime was a system of legalized racial segregation that was enforced by the National Party government of South Africa between 1948 and 1994.
The bill gives the State Department and the Homeland Security Department the authority to waive restrictions against ANC members.
"He had no place on our government's terror watch list, and I'm pleased to see this bill finally become law," said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
The ANC had been designated a terrorist organization by South Africa's apartheid government during the group's decades-long struggle against whites-only rule. Its members have been barred from receiving U.S. visas without special permission, and the bill President Bush signed will lift that requirement, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
"What it will do is make sure that there aren't any extra hoops for either a distinguished individual, like former President Mandela, or other members of the African National Congress to get a U.S. visa," Casey said.
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison on charges that included sabotage committed while he spearheaded the struggle against apartheid. He was released in 1990.
He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 with F. W. de Klerk, the South African president and National Party leader who worked with Mandela to end apartheid. Mandela replaced him as president in 1994 and served until 1999.
Recognized as a symbol of freedom and equality, Mandela will turn 90 on July 18.
The bill is H.R. 5690, which "authorizes the Departments of State and Homeland Security to determine that provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act that render aliens inadmissible due to terrorist or criminal activities would not apply with respect to activities undertaken in association with the African National Congress in opposition to apartheid rule in South Africa."
