New Gems from the ITN Archive – South Africa / Mandela special

Welcome back to another special edition of ITN Archive gems, covering our best and most salient finds to date from our SA project to digitise 1000 tapes from our Johannesburg Bureau.

Without further delay, let’s go --

15-minute Roving Report unseen since broadcast (1960)

Kicking things off with an extremely rare upload from some of our earliest collections – a 15 minute long Roving Report dissecting the lives and perspectives of the residents of the Langa Bantu Township in 1960! As the Apartheid government began to accelerate and solidify through a variety of legislation across this period, including the Bantu Self-Government Act (1959) that would produce Langa and many more racially segregated towns on the outskirts of the industrial cities – ITN’s stunning, historic commitment to the stories of the people would produce this fascinating – during a time when South Africa itself didn’t even have television or major internal broadcasting (another partial Apartheid measure, only introduced in 1976)! A stunning piece of social history fresh to Getty this week, and as of now our first roving report on South Africa, ITN returning just under a year later to assess the country upon exit from the commonwealth (you guessed it, another measure to maintain Apartheid) – then gauging the perspective of a young revolutionary called Nelson, in his first television interview no less!

Reactionary and solidarity protest (60s and 70s) …And as Apartheid legislation began to ramp up so too did protests, both internally and externally – footage from which we’ve been adding to the site as we continue to bolster our earlier collections around Apartheid South Africa to meet the fantastic standard and volume of footage coming out of the later collections – nudge nudge, keep reading, nudge…

Winnie Mandela and Mandela FC (1989)

A major plank across this project has been our exceptional coverage of Winnie Mandela’s wins and hardships as an effectively single mother and moreover mother of the nation (at war). Facing multiple imprisonments, house arrest, surveillance, and brutality herself, the resultant formation of Winnie’s bodyguards into the Mandela United FC – a gang with significant power and use of violence – would both give and take, seeing significant protections at the partial cost her legacy. The murder of the young UDF activist Stompie at the MUFC’s hands would prove a major device of the Apartheid State against Winnie, amongst other activities that would contribute to her divorce from Mandela in 1992 and land her in front of the TRC, as the crimes of all sides of the Apartheid struggle were to be laid out. The above rushes cover one such repercussion of Winnie’s activities and alliances during this time, arson against her family home in 1988 – with a young Cyril Ramaphosa (only a savvy trade unionist at this time) rolled out for the resultant follow up presser for which Winnie was absent and reportedly too shaken to attend.

?The parallel of Boipatong (June 1992)

The Boipatong Massacre on June 17th, 1992; committed by members of the Inkatha Freedom Party in connection with the Apartheid police force (SADF); was a tragic yet pivotal event on the rocky road out of Apartheid. However, the aftermath would present a significant turning of the tides as de Klerk attempted to appeal to the grieved township in person, only to be violently run from the town. Three days later the ANC – swayed by the people – would cancel then ongoing talks about talks (CODESA I, see last special) in protest… Mandela joking with journalists above about the curtness of this decision for the international press! Catch the best of the aftermath from both sides of the divide on the Getty site now with a major thanks to John for his detailed work on these!

New and unseen rushes from failed international mediation and last minute breakthroughs

..And as initial internal efforts towards peace faltered on, the big guns of peace were drafted in in the form of Lord Carington and Henry Kissinger, who admitted defeat just two days later over the continued abstention of the IFP from elections; which threatened to derail the notion of democratic elections entirely given the size and relative power of KwaZulu-Natal. We now also have rushes from the joint presser to announce the last-minute involvement of the IFP – not that this appeased Chief Buthelezi by any means as several hilarious interactions in the above rushes exemplify… an incredible set of rushes with doorsteps!

?Uncut rushes of Winnie Mandela’s first vote (ever) (27th April 1994)

And another stellar set of rushes previously unseen – uncut footage of Winnie Mandela’s first ever time voting in the 1994 elections, accompanied closely by ITN royalty Trevor McDonald – just one of several moments across this period of history that Trevor was at the frontlines for, being the interviewer for Mandela’s first TV interview on release from prison too. Today the 27th of April is a national holiday in SA – Freedom Day - in celebration of the first official steps into a new democratic society…

Full rushes from the Jan Smuts Airport bombing (27th April 1994)

Yet even as elections suggested the beginning of the end, on the same day multiple bombs were set off around the country by right wing extremist groups, which combined with the sheer chaos of first elections for around 80% of the population previously disenfranchised, cast significant doubt over the prospect of peaceful change. Mandela was reportedly due to transit through Jan Smuts airport near the time of the explosion shown in the above rushes, and overnight queues alongside general intimidation increased speculation that certain factions would reject any result over fraud allegations. Rushes from both the airport bombing and intense voting conditions are now available on the Getty site with major thanks to the powerhouses that are Katherine McKellar Stasia B. Tom Parmiter for getting so many of these up!

?New footage from the victory celebrations (2nd May 1994)

And after several extension days to meet voting demands – Mandela and the ANC held a victory celebration at the Carlton Hotel on the 2nd of May 1994. We’ve recently uploaded previously unseen ITN rushes of this celebration showing a microcosm of the dream yet to be fully realised… alongside the famous Mandela shuffle

We’ll be back in a few weeks’ time with another fresh instalment of SA gems for the 10-year anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s passing – until then happy weekend!