There were a lot of reasons he did it. It is suggested he started to change his views in jail, “One could argue that while he was in prison he began to shape his thoughts that instead of a hard line socialist view of nationalizing the economy, he recognized the need to embrace capitalism while balancing progressive policies toward greater economic equality,” says Standard Bank Chief Economist Goolam Ballim.

Surely, some of his transformation was visionary and strategic. He’d noted the direction the world was heading, away from communism and toward globalized finance, businesses, and markets. In 2000, Mandela would say: “As I moved around the world and heard the opinions of leading business people and economists about how to grow an economy, I was persuaded and convinced about the free market. The question is how we match those demands of the free market with the burning social issues of the world.”

On bringing about greater economic equality, he was also pragmatic, learning from the post-liberation experiences of neighbors Mozambique, Angola, and Zimbabwe, and understanding that South Africa’s whites still had much of the country’s capital and capacity. Pushing them away through forced income redistribution policies would likely decrease, rather than increase stability. (“Keep your whites!” was the well-known line of advice given by Mozambique president Samora Machel to Robert Mugabe shortly before Zimbawe’s independence.)…

Indeed, Mandela knew he needed to open the country for business because South Africa’s post-apartheid economy was in trouble. Years of sanctions aimed at divestment had left the country economically isolated and the government nearly broke.