I MAKE no apologies for the fact that Nelson Mandela is perhaps not the most original choice as a heroic figure in black history.
But I spent a lot of time in South Africa for ITN during the campaign for his release and was lucky enough to conduct the first interview with him when he was freed in 1990.
I look back at my career and I struggle to think of anyone who could live up to the figure he was and the example he set.
He had a magic touch, which I found just extraordinary. There are several characteristics which have stuck with me.
When I conducted that post-prison interview, I remember being astonished at his fortitude.
He had just spent 27 years in prison, but his mind was totally focused on what South Africa needed to do to become a democratic nation.
The only time he ever gave me any insight into the hardships he had endured in prison was a casual reference – dropped into a conversation some years later when I returned to South
STRONG-MINDED
Africa to interview him ahead of the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
He kept asking us to dim the lighting down again and again. In the end I had to say: “Mr President, the viewers won’t be able to see us if we turn them down any more.”
He apologised profusely and then told me he has sustained serious damage to his eyes from breaking rocks in the bright sun while imprisoned on Robben Island.
It was the most fleeting of references but it stopped me in my tracks.
It was the only time he referred to any type of hardship or brutality. In that first interview, there was no outpouring of bitterness or recrimination, just a focus on the future.
If I had been through the experiences he had I am not sure I would be so gracious. But he said it was in the past and he wanted to look to the future. He was so strong-minded.
I remember in my interview saying to Mandela that I could see no way he could come to an agreement with the National Party when their views were entirely opposed on fundamental issues.
I just couldn’t see it. And I will never forget what he said to me. He said: “If you are prepared to compromise and talk seriously, anything is possible.”
At the time, I just couldn’t see it. But he was right. That was a great, great lesson which is especially relevant today. No matter how stark our differences are, it is possible to work together.
The other thing that always impressed me was his determination that a new South Africa had to embrace all the races.
‘INVIGORATING TO BE IN HIS COMPANY’
I was once told an anecdote that when he walked into his offices on his first day as President, naturally most of the staff were white.
He addressed them and said immediately: “I want you all to stay, I need all of your help.”
The great iconic moment which symbolises this, of course, was when Mandela walked out on to the pitch at the 1995 Rugby World Cup wearing captain Francois Pienaar’s Springbok jersey.
It was a huge moment because that stadium in Johannesburg was the citadel of white South African sport. But for him it wasn’t a stunt, it was just something he thought he should do.
I also remember being at a dinner with Mandela in London, when he was President and probing him about South Africa’s economic problems.
He was very honest and told me he didn’t know too much about economics, but he had great people in his team like Thabo Mbeki who did. He was a very, very humble, self-effacing man.
I consider myself incredibly lucky to have met him a number of times. Whenever I went into a room where he was present I always wondered if he would remember me.
But he would always say, “Ah Trevor, how are you.” Just to be present in his company was invigorating. Another great memory is of the huge crowds who amassed outside Mandela’s home in the days after his release.
I went there to interview him and the people were demanding Mandela make a great, rousing speech, a “now the time for freedom in South Africa has come” type of moment.
Despite his many gifts, Mandela was a lawyer, he wasn’t a natural orator. He didn’t want to make a speech but was persuaded.
LEFT A LEGACY
He stood outside his house and said: “I have one thing to say to you today. Go back to school.”
Black South Africa had been boycotting the school system because it was thought not to equal to white schools, and rundown in every way.
He believed the future of South Africa belonged to young people and they needed an education to take that on.
The people didn’t get their rousing, romantic address and instead he delivered this simple message. It was quintessential Mandela, understated and simple.
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Whenever in recent times I’ve been back to South Africa and seen the enormous problems the country still faces today, I feel that Mandela’s star shone so brightly that it blinded the actions of his political successors.
But he’s left a legacy they would do well to follow.
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