- [Francois Pienaar] Probably the,
one of the luckiest athletes the world has ever seen to
experienced meeting one of the greatest leaders of all time.
Impossible to tell people what happened in our country in
six weeks, from being a nation divided,
to becoming a nation of hope.
(music plays)
- [Micheal Johnson] Nelson, Mandela, and people
talked about, you know, if he's ever released from prison,
you know, it's going to be a difficult situation
for the country.
Talk a bit more about how he was viewed when you were
growing up and then, you know, his impending release,
you know, what was the atmosphere like?
You know, when that was all sort of, you know,
unfolding that he may be released from prison.
- [Francois Pienaar] It was really tense.
You know, people were seeing civil war fame,
they were stacking up on canned food and thinking that the
country's going to go into a revolution.
This was early nineties, 1991 especially,
and when he was released from prison,
people were fearing the worst, here's a man that was
in prison for 27 years.
And surely, you know, when he comes out of jail,
there's going to be a sense of
retribution,
but it wasn't when Mr. Mandela came out of, out of prison,
his first ever speech,
which if you go and look at his first ever speech after he
was released from Victor Verster Prison,
who's holding the microphone, a Cyril Ramaphosa,
a young vendor was holding the microphone and he speech was
just incredible. His speech was about reconciliation,
about building, about opportunities.
He, speech was a positive speech.
He showed incredible leadership and vision.
And, but again, people were suspicious,
especially the people in my community fast forward in my
life. What was quite bizarre is
our oldest son Jean was born whilst we were living in London
and Mr. Mandela phone very early in the morning
to congratulate us with the birth of Jean.
And when I had a chance to speak to him, he asked me if,
if he could be his godfather
Incredible, He said, I want to give him a Xhosa name.
Nkokele, Nkokele means
leader
Mr. Mandela, Nelson is rolihlahla mandela
Rolihlahla means troublemaker because in, in east tradition,
in east culture,
they give you a name that they think is a premonition of,
you know, one day, what you, you would be it's it's, it's,
it's beautiful, actually.
And so he announced in South Africa, that his,
his the godfather of Jean and his name was Nkokele
In my wider family. It wasn't well received.
Michael, it's just,
it's just strange how apartheid has polarized people and how
Mr. Mandela in his wisdom and in his heart of hearts
wanted to build the true rainbow nation.
When he came out of prison, then you know, I,
I met him for the first time when he became the first black
president.
And everybody that's watching your show
should go and listen to he's speech
as the first black president of South Africa.
I mean, the words I'll never forget
that "the time for the healing of
wounds has come the time to bridge the chasms that divide us
has come. The time to bold is upon us."
It's just oftentimes you year politicians and leaders that
make these great speeches,
but really seldom do you actually experience that they will
follow through in what they've promised?
Just an amazing journey that I've had from growing up as a
kid in apartheid, South Africa,
not understanding what apartheid means, you know,
not understanding how it feels like to live in a township to
be able to in the morning,
find a way to work and in the evening,
get back to where you live.
So when, when I, when I started these conversations and,
and, and grow a brain,
there was a yearning for me to give back.
And that yearning came from just one person and it was
Mr. Mandela and the way he spoke and the way he acted.
And the first time he asked me to come and have tea with
him, when he was president, it was a couple of weeks,
a couple of months after he became president.
And there was a call from his he's assistant, Mary,
who said that Mr. Mandela wants to have tea with you.
And we arranged the time and it was going to be Pretoria.
And the union buildings.
I, I I've, I've told this story so many times,
but every time I think back over, it's insane.
I was sitting outside his office, you know,
quite nervous because, you know, what, what is it,
why does he want to see me? What are we going to talk about?
And then he came out in this booming voice.
He said, hello to me.
And I said, Hello to him in English.
And he keeps on speaking to me in Afrikaans
He said to me, how are you,
how are your parents in my language?
And then he did something just amazing. He took my hand,
Michael, and he said, let's go have tea
And he walked me into his office and we sat. And we, we,
we talked about apartheid. We talked about the boycotts.
We talked about Robin island.
We talked about the Olympics and he just wanted to know a
lot about me and,
and where I come from and what my thinking is.
And every now, and then it was funny.
Now, afterwards is Mary would come and say to
Mr. Mandela, the time is up because there were
presidents of countries are waiting outside to,
you know, to, to,
to, to meet with him.
And, and at the end, he said to me, thank you for your time.
I really appreciate your time here.
It's like you go back and you think
about these things right after
people ask me.
So I, you know, I do.
What did you think? How did you feel?
I said, well, I felt that I was in the presence of a caring,
real leader. I felt safe.
That doesn't make sense.
I felt like this is a genuine leader. You know,
I've met people and sometimes you can just realize,
this is not,
this is just the people talking for the sake of talking,
but, but in his presence, it was never that it was always,
you, you cannot explain to people how you feel
once you've been in his presence and you've
had a meaningful conversation,
and it's, it's a meaningful conversation.
Michael, it's not just a conversation for the sake of,
you know, having a chat and, you know,
it will be good for me to have tea with eh,
eh, the white captain of the Springboks,
he wanted to have tea with me.
And he wanted to understand what I was thinking.
And I say this
many times, I mean,
I'm looking at one of the greatest athletes the world has
ever seen, but I think I'm probably the,
one of the luckiest athletes the world has ever seen.
To have experienced what I've experienced in,
in meeting one of the greatest leaders of all time,
and then going on to play in this rugby tournament,
that just
impossible to tell people what happened in our
country in six weeks. It's just, it's crazy.
And a, from,
from being a nation divided to becoming a nation of hope
over the course of six weeks and our people's mindset
changed and how people,
when Nelson Mandela walked onto the field at the final,
there were 65,000 people.
Prob, Probably white people,
Probably Afrikaners, shouting Nelson, Nelson, Nelson.
It's, it's quite insane if you think about that.
And it took me a while to realize, you know,
the next morning you wake up and you're going,
what has just happened the next month and 26 years on,
I am reminded regularly about that moment of, of hope.
And that moment of we can, as, as a rainbow nation,
do something extraordinary.
- [Micheal Johnson] Yeah. I mean, I can imagine
I actually, you know,
had that same experience. I was so fortunate.
One of my most amazing memories is being invited to,
to meet Nelson Mandela in 1999,
I was competing in South Africa and it was invited to his
residence. And I had that same feeling.
I know exactly what you mean. You felt like, you know,
this icon, you know, it was really,
truly interested in hearing what I have to say, you know,
which, you know, like it, it was,
it was an amazing experience for me.
So I know exactly what you mean.