(Nelson Mandela addressing the media at the home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu after being released on February 11 1990. With him were his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Walter Sisulu and his wife, Albertina Sisulu. At the left end of the photo is Subry Govender who worked for international radio stations and the Press Trust of India at that time)
On Friday, February 11 (2022), when we as South Africans observed the 32nd anniversary of the release from prison of freedom icon, Nelson Mandela, I recalled that I was one of scores of local and foreign correspondents who had gathered in Cape Town to report on this historical event.
At this time I was working as a Foreign Correspondent for the Press Trust of India (PTI) and national radio stations in many parts of the world.
From the early hours of February 11 1990, I was sitting in my small hotel room, monitoring local TV and radio stations to get the latest about Mandela’s planned release.
Then I got in touch with PTI in New Delhi and Radio
Deutsche Welle in Koln and other national radio stations in several countries.
“Just get the latest from the entrance of the
prison,” one of the Editors told me.
Together with two foreign colleagues, I jumped into
a rented car and drove to the Victor Verster (now Drakenstein) Prison, about
65 km from Cape Town.
I watched from a distance as Mandela walked through
the prison gate, holding hands with his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. He lifted
his right hand into the air, giving the power salute.
He was smiling and greeting people, while the crowd
around me started shedding tears and some started dancing and screaming for
joy.
Seeing Mandela walking, I felt a lump in my throat.
Mandela had been a source of inspiration for me.
From 1980 to the end of 1983, the apartheid regime had banned me from working
as a journalist.
The apartheid politicians and security branch
officers had considered my reports for the radio stations such as Deutsche
Welle, BBC, Radio France Internationale, and Radio Netherlands and news
agencies such as the Press Trust of India to be a “threat to the security of
the state”.
Some prominent figures from the United Democratic
Front(UDF), the internal wing of the ANC at that time, had waited at the prison
gate to receive Mr Mandela.
They told us that we should gather at the centre of
Cape Town – where he would address a rally.
We then drove back and arrived in the centre of
Cape Town. What I witnessed was a scene I’ll remember for the rest of my life:
Tens of thousands of people, dressed in the colours of the ANC’s yellow, black
and green.
Freedom songs filled the air and the shouts from
thousands – “Amandla Awethu” – “Power is ours”.
Pushing back my own emotions, I went around
interviewing people and recording their jovial mood.
When Mandela arrived and took to the stage, there
was a massive roar from the crowd.
A smiling and jubilant Mandela punched his fist
into the air and shouted: “Amandla, Amandla – Power, Power”. The tens of
thousands of people returned the chant with lively vigour. I worked my way
through the throngs of people to get to the stage and placed my recorder near a
microphone to capture Mandela’s first words to the people of South Africa after
more than 27 years.
I recorded his entire speech and used sections for
my report to Deutsche Welle and other radio stations and for my written reports
to the Press Trust of India (PTI). His words that gripped me as a struggle
journalist were some of his opening remarks.
“I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a
humble servant of you, the people,” he said.
“Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have it
possible for me to be here today. I, therefore, place the remaining years of my
life in your hands.” I had witnessed the dawn of a new era with the release of
Mandela – but my greatest joy and honour was that I had the chance to pass it
on to listeners of Deutsche Welle, and other radio stations around the globe
and readers of newspapers aligned to the Press Trust of India and other
publications.
My stories were published widely in the Indian
Express, the Hindustan Times, the Hindu and other newspapers.
The newspapers also published as headline news my
first question that I posed to Mr Mandela when he addressed a press conference
at the home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu after he addressed the rally.
I asked him now that he had become a free leader after
27 years, which country he would visit first.
Mr Mandela did not waste any time by saying that
the country he would first like to visit would be India because India had been
one of the first countries to support the cause for freedom in South Africa. India
had taken up South Africa’s struggles for freedom at the United Nations and
that he had also been inspired by
Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlall Nehru in his struggles against oppression in
South Africa.
His release and his comments on his desire to India first were headline news in nearly all the national newspapers in India.
Now, 32 years later, I consider my reportage on Mr
Mandela’s release, the negotiations for a new non-racial and democratic South
Africa between 1990 and 1994, the election of the ANC as the new post-apartheid
government; and the installation of Mr Mandela as the first democratic
president as being of historical value.
In the first decade and half of the new South
Africa much had been done to promote the “better life” for most South Africans.
But for the past decade and more, the freedom that Mr Mandela and others had
sacrificed their lives for has degenerated to levels of wide-spread corruption,
unemployment of more than 11 million people, and destruction of public services
such as education and health, and state-run economic structures like SAA, Transnet, and Escom.
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