Nelson and Me

Twenty years ago today I was sitting in a hotel suite in Cape Town, South Africa watching a television monitor as Nelson Mandela walked through the gates of Victor Verster Prison. After 27 years, he was finally a free man.

I'd been privileged to serve as NBC's Africa Bureau Chief for two years at that point, and I'd spent a great deal of that time planning for this moment. Mandela and his wife, Winnie, waved to the crowds, Tom Brokaw's voice narrated over the pictures, and I could see that we were feeding a clean satellite image back to the States. For me, it was thrilling to share even a small part of this historic moment.

Mandela's release had grown more likely when F.W. de Klerk replaced P.W. Botha as South Africa's president in 1989. De Klerk was instrumental in helping persuade the ruling white minority to finally abandon the oppressive apartheid system, and just months into his term as president, it became clear that the release of South Africa's most famous political prisoner was on the cards. By late '89, journalists from every major news organization in the world were working their South African contacts to try to land what all of us knew would be a huge "get" -- the first interview with Nelson Mandela after his release.

As NBC's representative in Johannesburg, I tried to look up every person who might have influence with Mandela to lobby for a world-exclusive interview for our anchorman, Tom Brokaw. I met with old friends of Mandela's in Soweto, I flew down to Cape Town to buy lunch for Mandela's former lawyer, I met with African National Congress leaders in exile in Zimbabwe. Some said they would try to help, but no one promised anything.

By the morning of Mandela's release it appeared that no one had the inside track on the first interview. The former prisoner was surrounded by ANC handlers as he was whisked from Victor Verster to Cape Town's City Hall. No one could get near him. As he concluded a speech to thousands of supporters from the City Hall balcony, word came down from the ANC that Mr. Mandela would be repairing to Bishop's Court, the residence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu outside Cape Town, for the night, and that the media would have a chance to take pictures of the Mandelas in the gardens behind the residence the following morning. And no, there would be no "exclusives."

We wrapped up our coverage late that night, and I was back in our makeshift hotel office early the next morning to take in the video feed from Bishop's Court. As planned, Nelson and Winnie strolled arm-in-arm among the flowers as photographers, at a safe distance, got pictures for their morning programs and newspapers. NBC's Martin Fletcher narrated a nice piece for the Today Show and we fed Martin's story and extra video to New York in plenty of time for the 7 a.m. news.

Shortly after the satellite feed, the NBC crew returned from Bishop's Court and I thanked them for their good work and debriefed them on the event. After they'd described everything in detail, I thought to ask, "Was anyone still there when you guys left?"

"Most everyone had gone," our cameraman said. "The only reporters still there that I can remember were the ABC guy and his producer."

"Wait -- Ted Koppel and Roone Arledge??"

"Yea, Koppel and Arledge."

"Get the car," I said. "We're going back."

We made it back to Bishop's Court in record time and there, sure enough, sitting on a bench under a tree outside the front entrance were Ted Koppel, Roone Arledge and an ABC video crew. If they'd managed to set up an exclusive Mandela interview, it hadn't happened yet. We pulled our gear out of the trunk and camped out under a nearby tree. We figured that if ABC did have something in the works, we were going to make a case for equal time.

Soon after we took up our position, Jesse Jackson, who had flown in from the States to meet Mandela, arrived in a motorcade and was escorted into the residence. Moments later, John Allen, Bishop Tutu's press secretary, came out to tell us that, for security reasons, he would like us to all set up in one place. We were asked to relocate to the ABC tree. We passed an agreeable afternoon talking shop and sports with Ted and Roone, but none of us got a camera anywhere near Nelson Mandela.

But I did get lucky.

During the scramble to get pictures of Jesse Jackson emerging from Bishop's Court, I managed to slip into a side entrance of the residence. I followed the sound of laughter and crowd noise down an empty hallway until I came to the door of a large reception room. I opened it and found myself in the middle of a raucous ANC Mandela freedom celebration.

The first face I spotted was Walter Sisulu's. Like Mandela, Sisulu was a legendary ANC freedom fighter, and he had spent years in prison on Robben Island with Mandela in the '60s, '70s and '80s. I had interviewed Sisulu four months earlier when he had been released from prison and he waved to me as I entered the room.

"Mr. Sisulu, it's very nice to see you again. This must be a great day for you..."

"It's just wonderful!" he said. "We're all so happy... Have you met Nelson yet?"

"Well, no, I..."

Sisulu waved over my shoulder. "Madiba, come over here. Here's a friend from American television..." I turned and saw a smiling Nelson Mandela walking toward me. As he reached out to shake my hand I thought to myself, I might be the first journalist to speak with Nelson Mandela after his release from prison... and I don't have a video crew, or a tape recorder or even a happy-snap camera to record the moment.

Two decades later, I can't remember much of the substance of our conversation, but I do remember asking Mr. Mandela if he would consider doing an interview that evening with our anchorman, Tom Brokaw. He'd been advised against doing any exclusive interviews, he told me, but he would be happy to speak with Mr. Brokaw tomorrow in Soweto, where the ANC was planning to schedule a series of round-robin interviews in the back yard of his family home.

The next afternoon I found myself with Brokaw, Dan Rather and Ted Koppel on a dusty road behind the Mandela home in Soweto as each anchor waited his turn for a 20-minute interview. I remember that all three networks led their evening news shows that night with highlights of their anchors' conversations with Nelson Mandela.

And no one, it turned out, got an exclusive.