“We are excited to have this historical material of what we now believe is the first television interview with Nelson Mandela”, said Sello Hatang, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
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The Nelson Mandela Foundation, an NGO dedicated to Mandela’s memory, said that the 24-second footage was probably filmed in 1956 during the Treason Trial, which ended in 1961 with the acquittal of Mandela and dozens of others on charges of treason.
The short clip was aired on Dutch television in 1961 as part of a program on apartheid.
“We have always regarded as wrong for one racial group to dominate another racial group”, Mandela says.
Neither the interviewer, nor the exact date of the interview, was known at this stage.
According to a Reuters report, citing the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the interview was held in Pretoria while the Treason Trial was being held. “From the very beginning, the African National Congress has fought without hesitation against all forms of racial discrimination, and we will continue to do so until freedom is achieved”.
Days after he was acquitted in 1961, Mandela would go underground until he was again arrested by the apartheid regime in 1962 and sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island. He was released from prison decades later, in 1990, after intense worldwide pressure on South Africa’s apartheid government. The rights holder, AVROTROS, has waived its licence fee for the Nelson Mandela Foundation and has authorised our use of it for one year.
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Professor ZK Matthews, Ahmed Kathrada and Helen Joseph were also featured on the show called “Boeren en Bantoes”. He died in 2013 at age 95 after suffering from a respiratory infection.
