Mandela was master of disguise

 Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, who has died at the age of 95, was a master of disguise.

It is a little-known fact that Mandela disguised himself in various ways, including as a chauffeur, to elude South African authorities during his fight against the oppressive apartheid regime.

"I became a creature of the night. I would keep to my hideout during the day, and would emerge to do my work when it became dark," the liberation hero said in his biography, "Long Walk to Freedom".

The press nicknamed him "the Black Pimpernel" because of the elaborate tactics he used to evade police, CNN reported.

Another little known fact about South Africa's first black president is that he was not removed from the US terror watch list until 2008, when he was 89.

He and other members of the African National Congress were placed on the list because of their militant campaign against the minority white apartheid regime.

Besides politics, Mandela's other passion was boxing.

"I did not like the violence of boxing. I was more interested in the science of it - how you move your body to protect yourself, how you use a plan to attack and retreat, and how you pace yourself through a fight," he once said.

Mandela, who served as South Africa's first freely elected president, died at his home in Johannesburg yesterday after a protracted illness.