Nelson Mandela: One Incredible Life

Football fever is gripping this country.

The World Cup is coming to South Africa because of one man.

A man who stands for peace, equality and freedom.

That man is Nelson Mandela.

I've come here to South Africa

to find out how he's transformed this country

from international villain to a global superstar player.

How did he do it?

And what can Nelson Mandela's life tell me about being human?

OVER PA: Nelson Mandela!

For me and millions of people across the globe,

Nelson Mandela is the greatest man alive.

Where human beings are being oppressed,

there is more work to be done.

It is in your hands now.

Everyone, including the most famous celebrities,

want to get close to him.

But what did Mandela do to get such an incredible following?

I'm travelling across South Africa

to unlock the secret behind the Mandela legend

and to find out how he transformed this beautiful country.

-CHANTING

-'Along the way, I try and score on the rugby field...'

Yeah, woo!

'..witness a raid on one of the world's most dangerous streets.'

There's a lot of guns.

'I get up close with some of the junior Mandelas.'

My grandfather definitely was the strictest grandfather in the world.

'And even meet people who've found love because of him.'

Awww!

'I'm Lenora Crichlow and my other life is an afterlife.

'I play Annie, the ghost in Being Human.'

I...I have to go.

It's lovely to see you.

'But when I was growing up here in west London, there was another man,

'apart from my dad of course, who played a big part in my life.

'That man was Nelson Mandela.'

Thank you very much.

My mother's a teacher, so everything was laminated.

So we had this huge laminated poster

in my house of Nelson Mandela and quotes

and it had this picture of him, kind of coming out of the sky.

There was a few pictures of us as children,

but mostly it was these kind of inspirational quotes.

Oh, don't! Don't!

Here you are!

I was a tomboy, that's why.

That's our mum.

That's me with my dad.

'The reason why Mandela was so important for me

'and my little brother Knowlton

'was because our dad was fighting for black rights too,

'here in Britain.'

I've found that one.

"Sweet Victory For Crichlow."

"No Compromise With Racism."

'Dad saw racism first-hand.

'When I was young, the police raided the restaurant he ran

'and he was wrongfully arrested several times.'

When you see, like, the police, it just looks...

Very oppressive.

Oppressive and threatening, yeah. It's not right.

'We've still got the video my parents made of the moment

'when Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years.'

There's Mr Mandela taking his first steps into a new South Africa.

I do remember watching this when I was younger.

A bit like a lot of Dad's own history and my childhood stuff,

I don't remember when exactly it was,

they're like snapshots in my memory.

And when I watch it, it triggers those memories of growing up.

It looks like footage from my past, if you know what I mean.

'The whole world was gripped by Mandela's release.

'It meant the end of apartheid,

'the racist system of government in South Africa.'

That is the man that the world has been waiting to see.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

'And Britain went crazy when Mandela visited London in 1996.'

I want to assure you

that I love each and every one of you here without exception.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So this bridge here is that bridge there.

We've got Brixton station and Atlantic Road here,

so under this bridge in 1996, there was a hell of a lot of people

who'd turned out to see Nelson Mandela.

It was like the Second Coming of Christ. That's the feeling.

Wow! Bring it home! OK!

Everyone felt like loving each other because he was a great man.

Words could fail me to describe the feeling, it was just...

I've never felt that feeling about anyone.

My brother shook his hand like three times,

he kept running to the end of the line.

How old was your brother?

Nine.

See? At nine years old he knew to get

as many handshakes with Nelson as possible.

-Every time I look at him, he just has this calm face.

-Very Zen!

It's really superficial but it's like, "Ah."

-He's a nice man, you can tell.

-Yeah.

He was here.

SHE LAUGHS

# Listen to the music... #

'Most of us love Mandela from a distance,

'but what about the people who actually know him?'

'I'm off to meet Sir Bob Geldof, and straightaway, he's revealing

'there's another side to Mandela.'

There's so many people...

He's going to fancy you no end,

even though he is 967 or whatever age he is.

He's going to come on, like, you know...

My word! Well, if he does, it's Nelson Mandela.

Yeah, there you go!

I'd fly home just on that.

The thing is you actually do want to...

I know it's crap but he's sort of cuddly, you know?!

It's so bizarre that in my life I get to know someone like Mandela.

And people say, you've met all these people,

who's the most impressive person?

It's a terrible cliche, but without a shadow of a doubt,

the most impressive person I've ever met is Nelson Mandela.

Because he's a great guy, he's very funny,

he wears seriously happening clothes,

adores women, loves kids, you know,

what's there not to like in this guy?

'It's time for me to head to South Africa for the first time ever.

'I can't wait, but I'm also a bit nervous.'

Everyone's told me my life's going to get changed, so change is good.

'My first impressions of South Africa are, "Wow!"

'No wonder so many people come here on holiday.

'And in just a few weeks, hundreds of thousands of football fans

'will flood here to see the World Cup.

'Back in 1995, the country found itself hosting the World Cup

'played with a different-shaped ball.

'I can't believe my luck.

'15 rugby players from the local uni, all to myself!'

Please don't drop me, this is my business, OK!

'No-one's given the South African football team

'much of a chance of winning the World Cup.

'But back then, the rugby team got all the way to the final,

'and Mandela put in a special appearance.'

Nelson Mandela came into our changing room before the game

and wished us luck.

-What did he say?

-It was interesting.

He didn't just come in and say, "Good luck, everyone."

He came round, shook all our hands,

and he had a little message for each person.

It was very clear he knew the game,

he spoke to each guy about his little role and, most significantly,

he wore the Springbok shirt when he came in

and that was just unbelievable.

-About there?

-It was, it was...

'Inspired by Mandela,

'Joel Stransky scored the winning kick

'in the last minutes of the match.'

Show us how it's done, Joel.

Oh! Oh!

Yeah! Woo!

So just like that, basically?

Pretty much just like that.

Do you remember the day and the moment?

If you shut your eyes, can you just hear...

SHE MIMICS CROWD NOISE

Probably not, there was so much going on around that time politically,

that I think the rugby memories fade.

The things that are most vivid in my mind,

it's the political issues. It was Nelson Mandela.

The celebrations afterwards, people of all different cultures

and races celebrating together.

And there's no doubt that at the time, the nation did unite around us.

-Absolutely.

-And it wasn't because of us, the rugby players,

it was because of Nelson Mandela.

That was really... I'm right here, guys!

'At the time, rugby was seen in South Africa

'as a sport just for the whites.'

We won! We won! Mum, I won!

'Things are very different now.'

Ah, token white guy, there's always one.

As I understand it - and correct me if I'm wrong - the fact that you're

the token is actually quite a new thing in the sense that this

used to be a white man's game. Is that true?

It's not completely true

because there was a lot of rugby played by black people.

But it was never in the limelight.

As much as I'm the only white guy on the team,

I enjoy playing for this team. I love it.

At the moment, it's not really a colour thing, a race thing.

-Which is lovely. Isn't that nice...

-It's a sport.

..that that doesn't come into it? So my next question, big question, is,

what does Mr Mandela mean to you guys?

You know when someone is a father figure to you

and you don't even know that person?

That's Mandela. Everyone has a role model

and I think every child in South Africa would say it's Mandela.

That's my side of it.

Basically, he's the father of our nation.

As he said, he's a father figure for everyone -

black, white, Indian, coloured - it doesn't matter.

He's the father of our country.

So you like the guy, basically?

-We love him, we love him!

-In a nutshell!

Yeah, he's all right, isn't he?

This is a hot scrum, guys.

Thank you for inviting me in.

It's been moving. I feel very privileged, trust me.

This is what we do, pre and post the game. It's our war cry.

LOUD CHANTING

'When Nelson Mandela was a young man,

'South Africa was a very different place.

'White people, who make up less than 10% of the population,

'ruled the country.

'Racist laws, made to keep blacks separate from whites,

'meant black people had to live

'where they were told and couldn't travel without permission.'

TV BROADCAST: 'If the police stop an African

'and he has forgotten his book of passes, they put him into jail.'

'Blacks were separated from whites

'in everyday places like beaches, schools, hospitals and buses.

'Black people didn't have the vote,

'and were third-class citizens in their own country.

'And if they complained, they were dealt with, often brutally.

'In 1960, at a place called Sharpeville,

'police shot dead 69 unarmed protestors.

'This terrible massacre helped convince Nelson Mandela

'to become a freedom fighter.

'He set up the armed wing of the government's main opposition -

'the African National Congress,

'the ANC. And so the white government threw him in jail.

DOORS SLAMMING

# You can set me free or bang me up

# Just stop torturing and tell me what you're gonna do... #

'I'm heading to the island prison

'where Mandela served most of his 27 years inside.

'Robben Island was a maximum-security, black-only,

'political prison.

'Life there was very tough.

'Hard manual labour was part of the punishment.'

If I was on my way here to be imprisoned on an island,

'I'd be absolutely terrified.

I think I'd be very tempted to jump ship.

'There are no prisoners here now,

'but they've left the buildings standing as a reminder of the past.'

This is the master key. It opens and closes twice.

You see, I'm doing it gently.

During the prison time, they would really make some serious noise. LOUD CLANKING

The idea was always to affect you here.

Do you want to come in?

No!

Come on, please.

Mandela is a very tall man.

When he came in here he would have to bend a little bit.

For him to spend 18 years of his life in this space

using these two mats and those four blankets...

There was no toilets and shower.

And so this is what was used.

If you don't like small spaces,

this would be the wrong place for you to be in.

Do you have a question?

-VOICE BREAKING

-No.

Let me give you a moment.

'Standing here in Mandela's actual cell,

'it all starts to feel so much more real, and so much more cruel.

'Almost 20 years in a place this size.

'How could anyone cope?'

When apartheid was at its strongest,

we needed a symbol

that would capture that struggle.

And Mandela became that symbol.

'Hundreds of political prisoners were held here in these tiny cells.

'My guide, Dede, was one of them.'

This is the cell I was kept in.

Six years and five months of my imprisonment was spent in this cell.

You're going to think this is weird but,

for me, I've developed this system.

When I have my rough days

in the prison tours,

when everybody is gone,

I come back here. I sit here.

Sometimes I cry.

Sometimes I think about my father.

My father is my hero.

And I never got to bury my father.

They killed my father in such a cruel way.

He opened a letter.

It was a parcel bomb

and it blew him up.

They found a head there, a torso there, a leg there.

My father was reduced to a black plastic bag.

You understand?

A black plastic bag.

I never got to say goodbye.

Dede, you are a brave man.

My father is my hero, too.

He went to prison, too.

-He's still alive but he's ill.

-Oh, man.

Like you say, Mandela is the name and the symbol,

but there's so many men.

And you just think...

..just, cheap life.

Yeah, I understand.

You know, black life, African life's so cheap.

That's the thing, that's the thing.

# I want you

# I want you right now

# Need you

# I need you right now... #

'This is Loyiso Bala,

'a double-platinum-selling, massive South African star.

'In his home township, Loyiso is now a bit of a celebrity.

'When Mandela was in jail, Loyiso was growing up

'on these streets, living every day in fear of the white police.'

What really got to me was the way that the system would

infiltrate us within our communities.

There would be police going up and down in trucks, day in and day out.

-On this road?

-On this exact road.

If you're going to call it apartheid

and say that people should be segregated, then leave us alone.

And if you don't want us there, then leave us alone.

'But for kids like Loyiso, Nelson Mandela was a hero.'

Nelson Mandela, when I grew up, he was like, you know in a fairy tale

when you hear about the prince who is going to come and save the people?

That was Nelson Mandela to us.

He was sort of like,

this mythological hero who would one day come out of prison and save us.

-Hi, I'm Lenora.

-This is my mum...

'I'm staying the night with Loyiso's family.'

Oh! Hello, Lenora, pleased to meet you.

'Before dinner, Loyiso lets me in on a little secret.'

When I was about four or five and they would ask,

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

I said, "I want to be a white man."

That's brilliant! Oh, my gosh!

That's how sad it was...

-Dream big!

-That's just dreaming!

I thought that was the change, that eventually we'd be white people.

-And that's how life kind of gets better.

-Wow.

-Oh, food.

-Nice..

Thank you very much.

'Loyiso's uncle was involved with the ANC.

'The police arrested him and tried to turn him into an informer.'

It was about breaking your spirit up to a point

where you couldn't rise, you couldn't think, you felt inferior...

What strikes me is, when you talk about fighting back,

it's not from a place of anger or resentment or blame.

It's much more a thing of...

That you were fighting for equality.

Obviously this is about Nelson Mandela,

but I see where Nelson Mandela gets it from.

SINGING

'As the sun went down,

'I found out where Loyiso gets his musical talent from.'

Just now, I was really flagging.

Then this music came out of the garage

of the house we're staying in.

And I went outside and the choir rehearses in the garage every night.

And this music just went straight to my core.

It's like an injection of... I don't know, I've never taken ProPlus,

but ProPlus. It just invigorated me.

And it really kind of sums up how this place is.

It speaks straight to my heart and my soul

and it challenges me to challenge the way I think.

I've not met any victims here.

Nobody I've spoken to wants to be thought of,

or would call themselves a victim in any sense of the word.

SINGING

'When Mandela was released from prison in 1990,

'South Africa turned into one big party.

'People had been waiting for years for this moment.

'But the moment passed.

'Almost immediately, the country plunged into bloodshed and violence.

'Some white people hated the idea that Mandela had been set free.

'And some of South Africa's rulers deliberately caused violence between

'the country's different tribes, with shocking results.'

They used to form these columns, almost like the houses...

'As a young journalist, Thandeka saw the worst of it.'

This machete was typically used by migrant labourers

like the men who are around us now.

This kind of violence was called necklacing.

Here you see a man aflame.

How it was done is that people put a necklace over someone and ignite it.

-So it's divide and rule?

-Divide and rule of the most vicious type...

To make it look like black-on-black violence and to give to the world

an image of ethnic genocide which never happened in this country.

The minute that government was out of place

and could no longer use state funds to sponsor this kind of thing,

you saw a cessation of it.

Did you ever see white foot soldiers attacking?

Yes, they would. Let me show you some pictures. Here they are.

Here they are.

GUNFIRE

'Everyone was fighting everyone. The country was tearing itself apart.'

You people must get out now very quickly, OK?

'It was Nelson Mandela who ultimately stopped this violence.

'He told his followers to put down their weapons.'

Take your guns, your knives,

and throw them into the sea.

I cherish the ideal of a new South Africa

where all South Africans are equal.

'Mandela's time had come.

'The white president agreed to his peace plans.

'Four years after Mandela was set free, there was an election

'and millions of black South Africans

'took to the streets to vote for the very first time.

'It was another incredible day for South Africa.

'Thandeka was in the crowd.'

I voted for the first time in '94.

It was exhilarating

because people stood in the line and started screaming.

But we didn't scream inside the voting booth because,

if we were to do so, it would disturb other people's right to vote.

If people have waited a thousand or hundred years to vote,

you just don't disturb them when you are voting.

Then you can really scream afterwards and throw your hands up!

I wish I could describe such an exciting voting experience for me.

It's more like, "Leah, have you voted?"

"Going, Mum, going."

I shall never miss my vote again.

-Please don't.

-That is a vow.

People quite happily queuing for hours to vote for the first time

as adults - that's really such profound stuff to me.

It's really given me a sense of, I don't know,

a very empowering feeling,

to have gone from that level of devastation, violence,

turmoil, persecution, discrimination,

and then to be where they are now,

it's like having a cold shower.

It just goes, "Wow! Wow!"

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I, Nelson Mandela,

do hereby swear to be faithful to the Republic of South Africa.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

'Mandela became the first black president of South Africa in 1994.

'Overnight, people who'd hated each other before joined forces.

'It's amazing how one man managed to get such a divided country.

'But there's another side to this incredible man - his family.

'Nelson Mandela lost 27 years in prison but still found time

'to have three wives, six children and 27 grandchildren.

'At 91 years old, he doesn't do interviews, so today,

'I'm meeting the next-best thing - one of his grandsons, Ndaba.

'He even looks like him.

'We're outside one of the prisons that Mandela was held in.'

Nice to see you. How are you doing?

-I'm good. How are you?

-I'm OK. How is he as a grandfather?

Is he hands-on?

Not much hands-on but, whenever

you meet him, he'll always ask what you're doing. He's always interested.

What where your earliest memories of him growing up?

He was very strict.

He used very unconventional ways to try and instil some discipline.

I remember I'd lost my school jersey twice.

He was angry and he was like, "You don't have any value for things.

"You're very careless. Today you must sleep outside."

SHE LAUGHS

Sorry, I like that!

"Sleep outside." And did you lose your jersey again?

-No.

-Job done!

Sleep outside. Wow!

-Did he ever raise his voice?

-Sometimes, he would be in a good mood

and he would be telling stories, one after the other.

Sometimes he would be just in a bad mood, a foul mood

and he wouldn't talk or say anything.

And when he does talk, it's like, it's very stern, very hard.

Mandela's family is part of a traditional African tribe

which has an extreme way of turning boys into men.

We Xhosa men, we don't get circumcised at birth,

-we get circumcised round about the age of 18.

-Ouch!

We go to a mountain.

It's like a sacred place for men, and only men can discuss it.

And you're not even allowed to say, especially to a woman,

it's even worse. Then you get the worst luck.

I totally respect that.

You can imagine. You go to get circumcised.

No anaesthetics, no conventional medicine or drugs.

It's pure herbs.

So you are getting cut with a hot spear that has been sharpened.

And you get treated with natural herbs.

As you can imagine,

you have to be a man to go through that whole experience for a month.

Yeah, I'll say.

If you want to know more about it...

They breed their men tough here in South Africa.

Maybe that's where Mandela gets his strength from.

Before it felt like I had an almost

animated cartoon version of him in my head.

And now, getting to know him,

the amount of respect and admiration is not at all wavering.

I'm growing in appreciation because he is becoming more real to me.

In 1999, after five years of being president, Mandela stepped down.

He was 80-years-old

and thought younger people should be running the country.

But instead of retiring like any normal grandfather,

Mandela set off on a worldwide mission to get more things done

for the country he loved.

He used his image and personality -

including his unique taste in shirts -

his charm and his celebrity friends to persuade world leaders and people

like you and me to support big causes like Make Poverty History.

In this new century, millions of people

in the world's poorest countries,

they are trapped in the prison of poverty.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

But for Mandela, his biggest campaign of all

is also very personal to him -

AIDS.

You young people,

HIV doesn't just happen, like getting a cold.

Millions of people have died of AIDS in South Africa,

including Mandela's own son.

Another tragedy of the disease

is that one and a half million children now don't have parents.

This orphanage, like hundreds of other outreach projects,

is part funded by the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.

You take them as your children,

not as another person's child.

This is my child and that one is my child, and that one is my child.

you would teach them the same way.

Nosipho is one of the many carers Mandela helps pay for.

And so far, Nelson Mandela's raised £50m

to improve the lives of children,

involving celebrities and his entire family in the process.

Meet my second Mandela grandson, Kweku.

For a long time, not just in our family but within this nation,

there was a certain belief that HIV and AIDS was a poor man's disease.

And it really proved that it wasn't.

It struck us all and I think, for us,

the key was not to sweep this under the carpet

and act like this hadn't happened, but to show people.

I talk about my granddad trying to lead by example, losing his only...

his last son...

and having the courage to sit there

and tell the world that he died of HIV and AIDS.

It was hard because a lot of people wanted to share in our suffering.

I remember my uncle's funeral and how massive it was,

how many people came to it.

It was endearing because you see this huge amount of support.

But at the same time,

you feel that you want to have some sort of privacy.

'AIDS has touched almost every family in South Africa...'

Nose. What about your hair?

'..but fewer people are now getting infected.'

And, for me, this place is not sad, it's surprisingly full of hope.

Can I get a big hug from everybody?

I have to go now. I don't want to go.

Thank you so much.

Squeezed with love.

My journey so far has been packed and I feel like I've seen so much.

The more I see of this amazing country and its people,

the more I feel at home.

This is a country that knows how to eat, drink and relax.

And how to have a good time.

It's funny, one of the standard ideas

that comes with Africa is the idea of starvation.

Listen, every other place to stop,

there's some serious barbecuing going on.

So just for today, just for here, no one's going hungry.

Time for a night off in one of Johannesburg's exclusive nightclubs.

But in other parts of this city,

every night, there's a reminder that South Africa still has big problems.

Crime is massive on these streets.

There are 18,000 murders a year in South Africa,

and visitors to the World Cup have been warned to be on their guard.

I'm heading for a township called Alexandra.

It's got a pretty scary reputation.

It's not safe for outsiders to drive here at night,

let alone get of their cars.

So I'm joining the police on patrol.

Already tonight, a man has been stabbed to death.

The police are stopping and searching people,

hunting for weapons.

I suppose what's quite alarming about it is the route we just took,

the police presence was very, very heavy.

There's a lot of cars, a lot of vehicles,

a lot of guns, a lot of bullet-proof vests, a lot of heads.

The manpower was a lot.

It kind of is a reflection of how severe

the crime is, if that's the counter action.

I've noticed the police are not going down any of

the side alleys off this main road and they are staying close to their

support vehicles at all times.

It suddenly feels very tense.

They're raiding this bar for knives and guns.

And a man is arrested.

The whole area feels very on edge.

This is a totally different side to South Africa.

It's the morning after and I've come back to Alex

to see what it's like in the daylight.

Being here this morning certainly feels

like what was all the fuss about last night?

It feels safe. It feels open and friendly.

Something about it being Sunday

and seeing quite a few people in their Sunday best.

The sense of community here feels very strong,

so why is there so much violence in this neighbourhood?

In the crowd, I get chatting with a woman called Thembe.

She knows all about the crime on the streets.

December, and this guy came with a gun and he said, "Give me the phone

"or else I'm going to shoot you."

I remember seeing there was one guy,

I think he didn't know anything about this area.

You know you would get like you guys,

you would come here but he was coming from another region.

I saw these guys, they went to him,

and he had a bag, they took his bag, and they shot him.

They killed him, just like that.

Thembe offers to take me down the alleys

the police didn't want to patrol.

Everybody here, they all share this toilet.

All of them.

Over one in four black South Africans are unemployed.

And half the black population lives on less than £3 a day.

There's more than 10 people in this house.

Oh. That's a party.

Where's their water? Do they have a water supply?

They use the toilet that I showed you, it's got a tap.

We go further into the maze of shacks and slum houses.

Thembe tells me that 50 people live in this building.

More than five people sleep here.

And then each room is separated with these sheets.

So there's still more that side.

-OK, there's more.

-But you can't...

I don't know, it's very dark.

They are renting this place.

OK.

Surely it's this poverty that's behind the massive crime problem.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup

will be organised in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela was the centrepiece of the campaign

to bring the World Cup to South Africa.

There will be 32 nations taking part,

and millions of people will flock to 10 stadiums across the country.

Everywhere I go, I can feel the excitement.

Football is a huge passion here.

But Nelson Mandela hopes that as well as an amazing

month of international football,

the World Cup will bring badly needed money into the country,

giving South Africans new jobs,

new roads, new businesses and a new hope for the future.

But for all that hope, the problems I've seen in this country are still

a long way from being fixed, and I've heard that there are

some people in South Africa who have mixed feelings about Mandela.

My next stop is a township an hour's drive from Johannesburg,

and notorious for a massacre 50 years ago

which will never be forgotten.

Tshepo is a human rights worker.

In the first picture that you see here, these were people coming.

That's the march?

-You can see it's a lot of people.

-That's more than a few hundred.

You can see they're not armed, they're not carrying any arms.

This is what happened subsequently, at the place we are standing now.

-Oh, God.

-You can see all of these people have been shot.

Most of them have been shot in the back, most were running away as they

were being shot with live ammunition.

Official statistics say 69 people were killed,

but people suspect that it's much more than that.

And that really brought the world attention

to the brutality of what has happened in South Africa.

Before that, the world was in denial.

Very significant site because after this massacre,

people got to know about what was happening in South Africa.

There are still people here who remember that terrible day.

Hello, I'm Lenora.

So he was shot here, you can see the stitches.

Those who carried out this massacre have never been brought to justice.

As part of Mandela's peace plan for South Africa,

many horrific crimes on both sides, black and white, were forgiven.

And it's not just the older people who are angry.

-Wow.

-That was what other people argue.

No, I...

It's an important... One can't ignore

opinions like that.

It's the first time on this trip

I've heard anything negative about Nelson Mandela.

And meeting those survivors of the Sharpeville massacre

has given me a restless night.

I found it hard to sleep last night thinking about it.

I found it hard to shut off.

I look at these two people in front of me and I feel like

I owe you my freedom, I feel like you've paid such a price,

and they're still paying a price,

for me to have the opportunities I have,

for a couple like my parents to even be OK and have children.

Erm...

I just feel like I owe them so much. I feel like,

without these individuals, where would we be?

It seems a shame these people who Mandela's worked so hard to help

now feel let down.

But I'm finding out this is a complicated country.

He, Mandela the man, is becoming a lot more three dimensional,

a lot more real, and that brings with it...

the flaws, the things that aren't...

aren't finished.

And perhaps some of the things that...

weren't done so well, if I can say that.

All the mistakes. We all make mistakes.

And some black South Africans

think the biggest mistake Mandela made

was leaving huge amounts of money in the hands of the whites,

instead of spreading it around.

It brought peace and economic stability to the new nation,

but not the equality that Mandela may have wanted.

I'm heading to rich, white South Africa.

Many whites now live in ultra secure compounds

because of the high crime rate.

And despite their wealth, a few of them are very unhappy

with the new South Africa.

-Hello, Jo?

-Yes.

Hi, Jo. I'll let you open up your...

very secure... Hi, I'm Lenora.

-Pleased to meet you.

-Pleased to meet you, too.

They weld these bolts to the whole system

so that they can't be taken off the wall.

And we have lights here, we've got lights over there.

Everywhere, just to make sure there's nothing hiding in any corner.

And you're in a gated community.

I mean, seriously, this does look like prison bars, doesn't it?

It's like the house is built like a cage, basically.

If there's a fire in here, and it's here...

-We can't get out.

-Oh, my God.

Can't win.

Johannot has been the victim of violent crime before,

so everywhere she goes she carries a walkie talkie

that's connected to a neighbourhood response team.

Johannot thinks that Nelson Mandela's project

to unite South Africa's people has failed.

In terms of the future of South Africa,

I think that we've had 16 years

to prove that we can stand together, and...

we haven't proven that.

For me, personally, I would say that it would be better for my people,

for the preservation of our culture and our language, to be separated.

How would that work? I don't...

Basically, there's a group in South Africa

that is actually working towards this.

They're called the Volksraad Verkiesing Kommissie.

This commission, what they are trying to do is to gather all

the people of our culture, and vote for our leaders of our new country.

Do you think that's a better goal to be striving for

over integration?

Yes, I believe it is a better goal.

-Why?

-Because Europe is not one nation.

All the countries in Europe have got their own culture

and their own language and they want self determination.

If you throw all of them together suddenly, it's not going to work.

Is it ridiculous and naive to think these differences in culture and

language in South Africa's context could live harmoniously together?

Is that a silly thought to you?

It's not silly. If it could work, it would be great.

But I think South Africa is not going in the right direction

for my people, my Afrikaans people.

We are being treated as second class citizens.

That part about being separate and having her and her people,

as she put it,

having their own separate part of Africa, their own country,

in essence, I'm just like...

It just sounds a bit like repackaged apartheid to me.

Next day, I head to Soweto, a world-famous black neighbourhood,

to meet a South African family

who sum up Nelson Mandela's hopes for the country.

Knock, knock. Hello? Hello, Brenda?

As a mixed race couple, Brenda and her fiance, Werner,

can honestly say they fell in love because of Nelson Mandela.

20 years ago, their relationship would have been illegal.

Now, they have a four-year-old son.

So, I'm going to get straight to the point and ask you how you both met?

It was 2004, we met through friends that introduced us to each other.

-It was love ever since.

-Love at first sight?

-Yes.

See, it does happen! I'm convinced it happens.

-It happens.

-Did you not know that?

-That looks like it's news to you.

-She should know this, cos her

hair was wild like this the morning that I met her.

I looked weird. Trust me, I don't think it was love at first sight.

Yeah, well, weird clearly works!

How did your family react to you bringing home...?

My grandfather once asked my grandmother, cos he used to come

over to where we stayed and he'd make lunch for my grandmother

and grandfather, and my grandfather once asked my grandmother,

"Did you ever think a white man would be making you lunch today?"

And she was like, "No."

She never thought it was going to happen.

Can I ask what you guys think of Nelson Mandela?

I think he's a great man.

He spent 27 years in jail for me.

If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be where I am.

I wouldn't be with a white man with a coloured child.

I wouldn't be able to go anywhere.

For him to come out and not have any grudge against white people,

or not just white people, but any race.

For him to fight all those years and then come out

being the person he is...

There's no words for how great Mandela could be,

or how great he already is.

Mixed race relationships like this

are still not common in South Africa,

but I'm pleased to say that most of the people I've met on this trip

see nothing wrong with them,

and that shows just how far Mandela's brought this nation

in 20 years.

This place still does have some serious problems, but I'm hopeful,

really hopeful, for the future here.

I've got one last place I want to visit before I head home.

I can't meet the man himself,

but this place helps me feel close to him.

It's the house Nelson Mandela lived in before he was arrested,

and the home he returned to after his release.

It's actually really nice to be quite still in this place.

The rain coming down, there's something

very calming and soothing about it, something very, er...

It brings it alive, really.

Brings this place alive.

I think it helps that I have a very vivid imagination.

I can imagine this place being alive with a family.

I think it just really brings home the fact

that he was just an ordinary guy,

who's done something pretty extraordinary.

It's been a long and emotional journey for me.

Mandela has achieved so much.

He's ended apartheid and avoided civil war,

he's forgiven the people who put him in prison,

and he's given hope to oppressed people all around the world.

Yes, Mandela may have made mistakes, but we all do.

For me, coming here has convinced me

that Nelson Mandela really is the greatest man alive.

He shows us that we don't have to be victims of our past,

that we can let go of our bitterness,

and all of us can achieve greatness.

# Free, free, free Nelson Mandela

# Free Nelson Mandela. #

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