Muhammad Ali was a powerful figure in apartheid South Africa. When Nelson Mandela came out of prison, Muhammad Ali's people organized for him to visit the country. He arrived at the same time as Chris Haney and there were thousands waiting with placards on his arrival. In Cape Town he went to probably the most violent protest of all the protests that were held. But here you have this boxing legend, this demi-go, just pitching up and being proud of it.
On Easter weekend 1993 Nelson Mandela was engaged in slow-moving power-sharing talks with President F.W. de Klerk when a white supremacist shot Mandela’s heir-apparent, Chris Hani, in the hope of igniting an all-out civil war. On this episode of the podcast, acclaimed South African journalist Justice Malala recounts the riveting story of the pivotal nine days that followed Hani’s murder and the extraordinary effort of leadership that was needed to avert a crisis that could have developed into a full-scale war. Our host for this conversation is Alec Russell, Foreign Editor of the Financial Times.
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