Nelson Mandela: Africa's Noblest Son; No. 2; Law Practice and Run-Ins with the Law

Lebanon is like anybody his age, even if he's already killed in the Middle East. The very fact that they are still in prison after so many years shows to what extent the government is afraid of these men. But they are spirit and they are brave. I still wonder and I feel with such men than the men in the streets who see nobody but Nelson Mandela, his words, in fact, justice felt by most people, because when we talk of a leader who has no other places to cut, to try and end their lives, Mandela and hope for the maintenance of the status quo. And if he is released now, he has an enormous task ahead of the crime against humanity. We owe it to humanity to destroy the apartheid system, our society. In our minds, you have to start where the elderly men have left the elderly people from the opposition 1912 and left.

Yet you have to take it and bring it to you. And your son will take it. Yes. Up to freedom. Stephen, you could golombek relatively quiet, quick, ba ba dum, ba ba. So it like a job. I told Alexandra, our only Mamelodi Googoosh. All right. Did you tell Singer about the great, great songs on. Africans require want

the franchise on the basis of one man, one vote and one political. Nelson Mandela free. Free, free, free Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela began serving a life sentence for sabotage and treason in June 1964, having already spent the previous two years in jail, being detained meant separation from all things intimate and familiar. It meant being subjected to arbitrary rules and deprivations to stark surroundings, limited living space and closely regulated and monitored communication with loved ones. Well, Nelson Mandela was in prison. Grandchildren were born. His eldest son, Tambe, was killed in a car accident. His mother died. The family house in Soweto was firebombed and raided.

Political commitment had always meant personal sacrifice. But now South Africa would have to sacrifice to denied access to Nelson Mandela and the jailed or exiled ANC leadership in 87, 17 organizations belonging or affiliates of the United Democratic Front were restricted. Among this organization was released Mandela campaign. So it is our friends in South Africa to call for the release of Nelson Mandela. We have never been able to have a public meeting. In fact, most of our public meetings for Mandela in Soweto were burned. Difficult to get books on Nelson Mandela in South Africa. They are only beaten by law. But however, we did manage to to know about the man. I mean, there is no way you can keep secret the details and story of such an inspiring person. The South African regime has tried to remove the name of Nelson from everywhere to ban everybody from using hearing his voice to try and wipe his memory out of our minds.

They haven't succeeded because, you see, when they put him in jail, they said, it's my natural life. We never believed that. We knew he would come back. And, you know, we still know he will come back. It might not be today, but he will come back. And so it when they were put in jail, when they were banned, when others fled into exile, when others were killed, to us, it didn't mark an end. It marked the beginning. It is against the law to quote Mandela or publish anything he said or written. You cannot say his name publicly or display his image inside South Africa. One artist, poet Mswati and Bouley, has braved eight arrests, all with no charge. The last four eight months in solitary confinement was for recording a song in which he utters Mandela's name. I believe

I lived the life of my wife. I don't trust anybody, I think I know nothing better than. I am tired. Don't worry about anything. I don't know where to find my dog, so I just I don't know. I know. I know. All I am how about

I know my personal life, why there is no leader in the world over that has been respected like Nelson Mandela today. So when I talk about Nelson Mandela, I'm expressing a concern that he needs to be released. It's an incentive. At the same time, he's told you that you said during a visit to that athletes are named after this. Is that a particular morality in a person a distance from his own people whose his first album changes pain was banned in South Africa because of the Mandela mentioned and the lethal lyrics. We have people in this country who can think it, but they cannot see if other people have freedom of expression, choose to play a trumpet and say, this is all we got Nelson Mandela. We don't let him do it, but they'll be prepared to say it openly. We have kept the names of our leaders in high profile.

Despite government censorship and attempts to squash the Mandela legacy, oral history about him has remained intact. Some say that stories about Nelson, who have to buy in gentle breezes or travel along in the hazy township dust that rises above the unpaved roads and that babies are born talking about him. The influence of Nelson Mandela is everywhere and where we had commemoration services, occasions like heroes. The 70s on the name of Mandela used to rank very highly. We had songs, Mandela, which we learned a lot from London, learned, and also as a whole, just as you know, when the coalition, which is Mandela's vernacular name, we will go to jail. We will see Mandela. We'll follow you.

Mandela was actually losing his home that you see as it is 1970 time, 1976, when they had any children as a way to remain determined to deliver and do the same. Today, the kids, Mandela and the magic word. As a Christian, I replaced Mandela next to Jesus Christ. No man in the world is, I think, so much who has sacrificed so much for these people. South Africa is not short on great leaders. Many are Mandela's contemporaries. Some preceded or followed him. But he holds a unique place of honor and significance. He's called a symbol of the cumulative sacrifice and suffering of the oppressed masses. Others say there is something about him that galvanizes people focusing the attention of Mandela. As far as we are concerned, all that it means is that Mandela stands for the ideals of the people. He's an embodiment of what the people decide without people in him to just become like iron

filings in the magnetic field. He's like a bar magnate. Mandela and the old man of the ANC inspire awe and honor. But their incarceration and the concurrent repression by the white minority regime have taken a tremendous toll on the country. The past 25 years are a record of missed opportunities and waste lots of talent, money, resources and life perpetuated by apartheid. We had such a time with the communists and the government has evolved as the leaders. Let me put it bluntly, I think we have lost when you take a number of years when these men have locked up Nelson Mandela when they landed Tool and is still there or this is nineteen sixty three. When you compare the pictures in those days and the photographs now of aged now and aged quite considerably, it's actually mind boggling.

It a tremendous resources that are being wasted. The Defense Forces, we have literally thousands of political prisoners and each day there are tremendous resources going into the courts just to lend the courts just to support the people who are there. And the defense of those people also takes thousands and thousands of fans every day. And, of course, the police always waging a war against the citizens of this country in order to suppress the opposition. There is tremendous just being wasted to maintain a political ideology which has no hope of success. The sense of loss is not confined to the black or nonwhite community because banks and international lending institutions have made the release of Nelson Mandela a precondition for refinancing South Africa's outstanding loans. The impact of his detention is hitting the country's white citizens as well.

The economy of this country has gone to the dogs. It is getting worse. It's only the government is keeping them up for whites by giving them civil service jobs and increase the wages by 15 percent. Many whites have now lost jobs, making many as many questions in the country is on the people they love. And the situation with the other party that has been in jail all along now suffering to a point now where it will all be called sufferers and that one's senator. Nelson Mandela free. Fred. Free, free, free Nelson Mandela. The South African government has made several half hearted offers for Mandela's release offers they knew he wouldn't accept. In December 1973, the government said if Mandela would recognize

the trans guy Bantustan, the tribal area where he grew up as an independent African country and promised to settle there, he could walk out of Robben Island. He said no. 13 years later, in January 1985, South African Prime Minister P.W. Both announced Mandela would be released if he renounced violence. Can you blame me when I tell you that I am prepared to consider those documents release provided he undertakes that he will not precipitate a provocation and conduct violence in South Africa? Have you ever given a disability vitalism, in spite of what the court said about him tomorrow? We have to arrest him, what would the public say? Mandela hurriedly penned a response that was read My daughter Zenzi at a rally in Soweto honoring Desmond Tutu, who had just received the Nobel Peace

Prize for the murder of his mother, who let him renounce violence, let him think that he was a man of faith, let him in the people's organization, the African National Congress. Looking for you all have been in prison news stories for the opposition to our party. That's your freedom cannot be. One once

said, I am a member of the African National Congress. My father. You know, my father says it is useless to continue to increase a number of things that got his reply is only savage tax return my father. So I cannot and will not have any undertaking at the time when I know the people are not free. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated. And I love the murder of

the murder of murder. How does he renounce violence just like that without anything changing? ANC President Oliver Tambo. South Africa calls the ANC a violent organization, yet most of the violence in the country is generated by the white minority government. South Africa, for example, performs half the executions in the world who recently heads of state, like Zambia's President Kenneth Konda and Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, have called for the release of Nelson Mandela. The Reverend Alan Bozak suggests Mandela's release is inevitable. Therefore, different issues should be on the bargaining table. The release of Mr Mandela is no longer an issue that could be seen in isolation for us back home.

For a long time now, the release of Mandela is is inevitable and will only make sense if that is linked to the possibility of Mr Mandela's participation in a normal political process at home, which will include the lifting of the state of emergency, which will also include the legalization of the organization of which he is the head. So that the release in itself, of course, is no longer something that that people say, hey, you know, this is what we are waiting for with bated breath. It is something that needs to lead to something else. Mandela has stated that his release is not an issue of high priority, but the normalization of life for blacks in South Africa is calling for the release of all political prisoners. And I would think that Nelson would not enter into any discussion without a number of people who are in prison right now.

Stop all the trials, all the people who are being charged for promoting the ANC. And that was just a step in the process for whether Mandela for the mockery, rumor and speculation have swirled about the release of Nelson Mandela before. But it seems more certain than ever that 1989 will be the year. The burning question is how the government will release Mandela and what, if any, negotiations will accompany his release if the government releases him and does not accompany the release with setting up a dialog, then the government fears there might be Large-Scale turbulence throughout the country. The government is waffling between trying to mollify international and domestic pressure for Mandela's release and appease its right wing constituency at home. They don't know which way the country's going to jump. There's so much expectation that once Nelson will be released, some process is going to be initiated, which will take South

Africa in the right direction. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen. But so far, there is no indication on the part of the government that it is willing to do so. Let me point out at once that since South Africa freed itself from colonialism but is still living in the colonial system. Democracy has already been broadened and millions of people who never had the same governmental affairs happy today. Millions of them, millions of them, according to Prime Minister P.W. Both there's been real progress in South Africa in the way of reforms. In 1983, elections were held for Negro representatives to try cameral system of representation.

It established separate chambers of parliament for whites, blacks and Indians and persons of mixed race. Critics say this arrangement is an effort to circumvent recognized black leadership. There's every indication that the South African government does not contemplate any serious negotiation with national popular forces in South Africa, but is intent on setting up its own spokesman of the black people. We believe our guide will have divergent population. Groups must speak to each other through their elected leaders, not self-appointed. Leaders of the black majority views the black elected officials suspiciously. So much so many were hunted down in the state of emergency of 1984 and 1986 and subjected to death by the infamous burning tire necklace the white minority has to date effectively averted genuine sharing of power at any cost. There has been no real dialog. Some petty apartheid laws have been revoked.

Blacks can now marry whites, but the dreaded group areas act makes it illegal for persons of different races to live together. So, despite rhetoric to the contrary, little has been done to dismantle apartheid. The problem here is what does the government do with the leadership if they release them to the present political atmosphere in a situation where on what they fought against twenty six years ago is precisely the same, if not worse? South African government is politically, morally and economically speaking, bankrupt. They've got no strategy to take South Africa forward. They are noted for the various states of emergency, have driven all political activity. And across the country, neat and tidy is in full occupation by the security forces. What has happened is that the state of

emergency does not allow the troops to leave the country. People can no longer express themselves. Strikes are illegal. Demonstrations are illegal. Open meetings are illegal, public meetings are illegal. And what has happened is that the government has sealed its boiling with racist laws. The government has declared war on the oppressed people in this country. The flammable combination of intensifying economic problems, black frustration and white intransigence has translated to more, not less, polarization. I'm not prepared to lead what South Africans and other minority groups on the road to abdication and suicide and to those who prefer revolution to reform, I say that they will not succeed if necessary. We will use stronger measures. What they are like, what they make from Africa to a continent who is dying at present.

I'm not going to hand over South Africa to these revolutionaries to do the same with this lovely country. ANC President Oliver Tambo, I believe that at some point talks will take place. We are fighting to be free to participate as full citizens in the running and the government of our people. But this means the dismantling of apartheid. Do you really believe that President Blatter is willing to sit down with you and discuss the dismantling of apartheid? Perhaps not yet. Perhaps not yet. That is why this stadium go on. Nelson Mandela free. Free, free, free Nelson Mandela. After election September six, 1989, Frederik de Klerk will inherit the presidency and nationalist party leadership from P.W.

Both de Klerk has called for a constitutional convention for all races to discuss a new formation of parliament. But while de Klerk talks of compromise and reform, he is already on record agreeing with both that that equal representation or one person. One vote is out of the question. If and when he is released, Nelson Mandela will emerge from prison into this web of complex and divergent political streams after over a quarter of a century of observation from afar. Nelson will be released at some stage or another. The problem, however, is just that a person who has dedicated his entire life to a struggle is going to walk out from a small prison called Pollsmoor or the first day on Robben Island into a larger prison called South Africa. And he's going to continue to speak of the consequences irrespective of the odds. While Mandela is committed to full and equal nonracial power sharing, one of his demonstrated strengths has been working against divisiveness and moderating

between different views. His experiences on Robben Island in this regard will undoubtedly come in handy because the current situation in South Africa will pose one of his greatest challenges. South Africa's black majority exudes a deep and abiding confidence that with the return and counsel of their rightful leadership, they will realize their goals. There's no doubt that their contribution should not only be for South Africa but for humanity. They say the future looks bright despite the quagmire of the present. Let us take Namibia. South Africa never thought of relinquishing power there, and it resulted from terrorists. Now, when you take Zimbabwe in 1977, Ian Smith said that it would take a sample in ZANU-PF one thousand years and one April 1980 came because of the difference of three years.

I think we must remember Nilsson's well. There's no easy walk to freedom. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get a lot better. But there can be no doubt in my mind, and there can be no doubt in the minds of the broad masses of the oppressed people in this country that the victory of the struggle and what we're fighting for, if I think we can perhaps talk in terms of our life. Meanwhile, reception committees of the released Mandela campaign are busy planning activities for the release of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Greyman and Blaber. And Mandela's other associates, as well as the return of South African exiles. Blacks in South Africa have been struggling for decades, passing the mantle of sacrifice on from generation to generation. They say time is on their side. Our work that we are to do is to organize every body to follow the steps of Mr Mandela.

Even a small child. I see my. On. Nelson Mandela, Africa's noblest son, a four part documentary series on the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela, was produced, written and narrated by Sandra Rattley with Engineering by Rene Pringle and editorial support from Rhett Lewis. Production material was provided by the CBC, BBC and Peter Davis from his film Remembering Mandela. This program was made possible by a grant from the Pacifica Foundation. Bill Wax, executive producer.