At 90, Mac Maharaj embarks on a film journey about Nelson Mandela's life
Image: Ken Oosterbroek / Archives
ANC veteran and former Cabinet minister Mac Maharaj is working on a film about global icon and late former president Nelson Mandela's life.
Maharaj was transport minister in Mandela's first Cabinet after the 1994 elections and they spent 12 years together incarcerated on Robben Island as political prisoners for fighting against apartheid.
The erstwhile spokesperson of former president Jacob Zuma announced the making of the film during a students' colloquium convened by City of Tshwane corporate and shared services MMC and ActionSA councillor, Kholofelo Morodi, to commemorate Nelson Mandela International Day on Friday.
'It is interesting for me when I look back that I also have the opportunity today, over the last four years, to have been doing research to help to put together a film on Madiba (Mandela's clan name),' Maharaj revealed.
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The 90-year-old described the film as 'not what others say about him but what he says through his own mouth'. Maharaj said this was a project he was busy with and which has also given him the opportunity to look back even more deeply.
'And I tried to understand what made him the leader he became,' he explained.
According to Maharaj, he was not the best person to help draw lessons from Mandela's life because in their close interactions, he had many occasions to advise him, and as a dutiful disciple, he tried to learn from him.
'But sometimes the learning has led to consequences that are not so good. When I went to prison, I was a young man, an angry young man. I actually landed on Robben Island at the age of 29 and so my decade of the 30s, the prime of my life, was spent in prison. I came out of prison at the age of 41,' he remembered.
Maharaj said he went to prison in a fighting mood, had been tortured for two months, and had reached a point where he attempted on three occasions, under torture, to commit suicide rather than talk.
'My experiences had shaped me that every moment in prison was becoming a moment to fight back, hence every time I got into an argument with a (prison) warder, I would end up using words and swearing (at) him, and the result was I would be charged for insulting the warder and the punishment took the form of deprivation of food,' he explained.
However, one day while at the quarry, Mandela called him aside, reprimanded him and warned that his behaviour could cost him his life in prison.
But Maharaj said he responded to him aggressively and asked what he wanted him to do as he would not listen to nonsense and obey racists.
Mandela told him he was right to fight back, but in the argument with the warder, he tended to lose his temper and insult the warder.
'Calm down, you are right to stand up but when you do stand up, pause, count to 10, choose your words so that your words become like a scalpel that cuts, words such that he can't charge you for swearing,' Maharaj recalled Mandela telling him.
He said his 12 years on Robben Island, between 1964 and 1976, were a journey into discovering new ways of defiance that would triumph over every rule in the book of prison regulations and in the armoury of apartheid.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za
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Nothing to disclose Nothing to disclose Nothing to disclose Nothing to disclose Nothing to disclose Description Value Source Portrait of Deputy President Estimate R3 000 National Youth Development Agency HILIA designed box:silver Omani (Wildlife ofRussia) made in 2022,Manufacturer: TISSO –The collection consist ofthree sets dedicated toanimals, birds and fishthat are mainly found onthe territory of the Russian Federation Estimate R2 000 Russia Prime Minister:Mikhail Mishustin, duringthe Deputy President working visit in Russia PYCCKNECAMOLIBETBI (sets oftwo saucers and teacups).Tea sets: four cups,one small kettle and four saucers Estimate R1 500-R2 000 Russia Prime Minister:Mikhail Mishustin, duringthe Deputy President working visit in Russia Backpack bag (black andgrey in color with writtenHarambee on the back)Hoodie Jersey Bennie Estimate R700 Harambee YouthEmployment Accelerator: CEO – Kasthuri Soni. 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