Saki Macozoma: who is the man who walked beside South Africa’s great Mandela?
The former political leader and business man spent three years along side Nelson Mandela and argued over speeches as his press representative
“Friends, comrades and fellow South Africans. I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all. I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people.”
To hear these words we would have to go back in time and land in the hot afternoon of February 11, 1990 in the main public square in Cape Town, South Africa, standing elbow to elbow with thousands of people eager to see the man who would become the first black South African president.
After moving the crowds with a heartfelt greeting, these were some of the first words of Nelson Mandela’s speech following 27 years behind bars. These were words carefully thought by him and some of his political allies, including Saki Macozoma, who became his media representative in the early 1990s.
Macozoma, now 58, former student activist against the apartheid regime and ex-member of the South African parliament, visited Hong Kong this month as president of the association, Business Leadership South Africa.
Speaking to the Sunday Morning Post during his visit, he recalled the days he spent in prison with Mandela, the moments when Mandela faced the world after almost three decades in jail and their very final encounter .
“We were allowed to see him on the day before he got released, and we discussed the speech that he was going to issue after leaving the prison,” Macozoma recalled.
