However , UK Prime Minister John Major flatly rejected the idea saying the British government did not have confidence in foreign courts . A further three years elapsed until Mandela 's offer was repeated to Major 's successor , Tony Blair , when Mandela visited London in July 1997 . Later during the same year , at the 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ( CHOGM ) at Edinburgh in October 1997 , Mandela warned : " No one nation should be complainant , prosecutor and judge . " In South Africa 's first post-apartheid military operation , acting president Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi ( who was South Africa 's third in command after Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki ) ordered troops into Lesotho in September 1998 to protect the government of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili . This came after a disputed election prompted fierce opposition threatening the unstable government
1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1997
Presidency of Nelson Mandela