What would Mandela say of this South Africa?
Oti Mabuse: My South Africa BBC1, Thursday The Great British Bake Off: The Final Channel 4, Tuesday I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here Virgin Media One/UTV, all week
South Africa is a fascinating and baffling country. It is 32 years since Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison, his appearance before the world’s media for the first time in 27 years promising hope of a bright new future. Former Strictly Come Dancing winner Oti Mabuse was born that year too, so she in many ways is a child of the new South Africa. Soon after she was born, apartheid was consigned to history, and Mandela became president. Change, sadly, has come dropping slow.
I lived in Cape Town for three months in 1999, and I was captivated by the air of optimism among all but the most resistant Afrikaners (and a few unreconstructed white Zimbabweans who still called themselves Rhodesian), who clung to their coloniser mentality.
During the general election that year, I went to the University of the Western Cape, a largely black institution, to attend a rally by Thabo Mbeki, who eventually won.
The atmosphere was electrifying, with everyone in the stands singing and doing the toyi-toyi, the protest dance I had seen on television during protests in Soweto and other townships when I was growing up.
Sadly, many of the problems I saw then persist to this day. Corruption among the new elite remains a threat, and there has been a failure to lift millions out of poverty, while drugs are a scourge, as they are among poorer populations the world over. Mabuse revisited the country for this compelling documentary, and she did not gloss over any of these issues.
Her own parents were forcibly moved to a newly built shoebox home far from the wealthy suburbs of Johannesburg or Cape Town, and only through hard work, and by benefiting to a modest extent from the post-apartheid dividend, did they buy a much bigger, nicer home. Mabuse’s mother Dudu was made of strong stuff.
A warm woman, she has taught
dance to children for decades, because she wanted to give them an alternative to life on the streets, and the inevitable temptations that would present. She made massive sacrifices to support her daughters Oti, Motsi (now a Strictly judge) and Phemelo, allegedly the best dancer of the three, but who pursued a career in engineering instead.
Dudu was also to the fore in the
student protests in the Seventies against the forced learning of Afrikaans, when schools, as well as books, were burned.
Oti took a trip to Robben island to see the tiny cell that was ‘home’ to Mandela for years. I too have stood in it, and it still amazes me that he emerged so unconsumed by any hint of bitterness. Would he happy with his country now? Over 70% of farmland still is owned by white
South Africans, with only 4% owned by black Africans; the rest is in the hands of so-called ‘coloureds’, Indians, and others.
That is a striking imbalance, and one unlikely to radically change anytime soon.
Mabuse was optimistic, but realistic too. On a visit to Khayelitsha, the largest township in the country and home to over a million people, she met a dance teacher who broke down when she told of a star pupil, a boy who fell in thrall to drugs at 16 and now, four years later, effectively wandered around like a zombie. I have been back since 1999, and found that many things had changed for the better, and the sheer joie de vivre of South Africans was still evident. Mabuse’s documentary showed the beating, warm heart of her country and the joy it takes in dance – but also served as a sobering reminder that Mandela’s long walk to freedom has many kilometres to go.
The Great British Bake Off finished on Tuesday night, and it was a reminder in itself of how migration has been good for so many, just as it has been for Oti Mabuse. Opportunity is something all humans strive for – most don’t want handouts, they just want a shot at fulfilling their potential. The last five contestants standing were immigrants and, of the final three, Sandro was born in Angola, Syabira in Malaysia, and Abdul in Saudi Arabia of Pakistani parents. Forget cookware – the best melting pot of all on the show is the show itself.
Syabira was my favourite all along and I was delighted she won – she combined flavours I’d never heard mentioned in the context of cakes before, such as tarragon. In a cake? Well, blow me down. That said, it wasn’t a vintage final, with all three cocking up to a greater or lesser extent, but it still served as a timely reminder that a country, just like a cake, has many ingredients, and its ultimate success depends on the mixture of them all.
Rather astonishingly, Matt Hancock survived the first eviction vote on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. He might be gone by the time you read this, because I’m writing in advance of last night’s show but, grudgingly to his credit, he has made an impression, winning lots of food for the camp and even standing resolute against an ill-judged personal attack by Boy George. I can’t say it made me warm to him, but I thought the Culture Club singer’s challenge unnecessary and petty.
As for Charlene, I never heard of her before, not being a Loose Women viewer and all that, but she probably sealed her fate by being a bit too controlling. I still think the final showdown will feature Jill Scott, Mike Tindall, and maybe young Owen – if he hasn’t died of hunger first. Maybe Syabira could send him a cake.