Mandela: The Authorised Biography
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| Author | Anthony Sampson |
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| Cover artist | Annie Leibovitz |
| Country | South Africa |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Biography |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Released | 1999 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 678 |
| ISBN | 0-00-638845-0 |
Mandela: The Authorised Biography (ISBN 0-00-638845-0) is a biography of former South African President Nelson Mandela, by the late British journalist and writer Anthony Sampson.
Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, revealed little of certain major episodes in Mandela's life. Sampson's book was one of the first to examine such issues as Winnie Mandela's crimes, and State President F.W. de Klerk's suspected attempts to use the security forces to derail peace talks.
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[edit] De Klerk and the 'Third Force'
Winnie Mandela and her "football team" were punished, but Sampson's allegations against de Klerk have never been proven or widely discussed. Sampson accuses de Klerk of exacerbating the violence in several ways. De Klerk was reportedly ignoring the violence of the Zulu-nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) when directed against the non-racial ANC (and vice versa), in the hope of splitting anti-Apartheid forces. De Klerk also permitted Inkatha supporters to carry "traditional weapons" in their rallies, with which they caused much injury. Nelson Mandela had himself made these criticisms in Long Walk to Freedom. Sampson cites an occasion where the ANC tipped off the government that IFP was planning a violent protest: the police did nothing, and thirty people were killed.[1]
De Klerk is also accused of permitting members of his government, among them his Ministers of Police and Defence, to sponsor both Inkatha and private Afrikaner armies which terrorised opposition movements, the so-called 'third force'.[2] In 1991 de Klerk fired those ministers, Adriaan Vlok and Magnus Malan respectively, and began an inquiry which Sampson described as a whitewash conducted by interested parties. However, de Klerk defended himself from these allegations, claiming that he had been not unwilling but unable to restrain the third force.[3] In a 2004 interview, de Klerk asserted that his security forces had been undermining him by "continuing undercover activities which were actually totally in conflict with the policies which we were trying to advance". He also claimed that those problems were not unique to him, and that Mandela had similar problems with certain elements of the ANC. [4]
[edit] Goodbye Bafana and James Gregory
Sampson's biography also alleged that one of Mandela's Robben Island warders, James Gregory, falsely claimed to be Mandela's friend in order to make money. According to Sampson, the close relationship depicted in Gregory's book, Goodbye Bafana, was a fabrication: Gregory is claimed to have rarely spoken to Mandela. Gregory censored the letters sent to the future president and thus discovered the details of Mandela's personal life, which he then converted into money by means of Goodbye Bafana. Mandela considered suing Gregory, but refrained from doing so when the Prison Department distanced itself from Gregory's book. Sampson also averred that other warders had told him in interviews that they suspected Gregory of spying for the government. [5] Mandela later invited Gregory to his inauguration as President, apparently having forgiven him as he had former president Pieter Botha, and lawyer Percy Yutar who had tried to get him executed in the Rivonia Trial.
[edit] References
- ^ Mandela: The Authorised Biography, p.438.
- ^ Mandela: The Authorised Biography, p.443.
- ^ Mandela: The Authorised Biography, p.442.
- ^ http://www.cfr.org/publication/7114/hbo_history_makers_series.html?breadcrumb=%2Fregion%2F151%2Fsouthern_africa
- ^ Mandela: The Authorised Biography, p.217.
