"I've got a lot of hope for South Africa" - Zelda La Grange
'With my background, it's very unreal, even to me today, that I ended up working in Madiba's office.' - Zelda La Grange
Late ANC President Nelson Mandela greets young supporters atop a billboard in a township outside Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, on 16 April 1994, prior to an election rally. Picture: AFP
Clarence Ford speaks to Zelda La Grange about her latest book 'What Mandela Taught Me'
Listen below
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In 2020, a 'thoughtless' Tweet, by Nelson Mandela's former assistant Zelda la Grange unleashed a barrage of criticism on social media.
Her tone-deaf, hurtful, and (some claimed, racist) comments led critics to ask her ‘Have you learnt nothing from Nelson Mandela?’
Now, La Grange says her latest book answers that question.
In it, she offers readers a deeply personal glimpse into the wisdom and lessons she gained during her 19 years of working as Nelson Mandela’s personal aide.
La Grange shares intimate reflections, and timeless values she says her time with Mandela instilled in her.
She tells Clarence Ford, she's optimistic about the future of the country:
"I'm very, very optimistic about the future, it is not true when people say everything is crumbling and we are worse of than we were."
Zelda La Grange, Former assistant to President Nelson Mandela
"People who lived through apartheid, we were so densitised to the violence, the bombings, how apartheid was being run, that we forget where we were. We are [now] in a much better position."
Zelda La Grange, Former assistant to President Nelson Mandela
La Grange was born in Boksburg and grew up in a very politically conservative family in Pretoria.
She could not, she says, escape the indoctrination of apartheid.
"From a very young age, I was indoctrinated and made to believe that I am of superior race...that's where I come from."
Zelda La Grange, Former assistant to President Nelson Mandela
"With my background, it's very unreal, even to me today, that I ended up working in Madiba's office."
Zelda La Grange, Former assistant to President Nelson Mandela
La Grange says she ended up working for Madiba, almost by accident and had applied for a job at the Union Buildings to be closer to her parents home in Pretoria.
She says for the first two weeks in the job she would lock her office door in fear of Madiba.
"I'm so afraid of this man because we are bought up to believe he is a terrorist and he's our enemy and he's angry..."
Zelda La Grange, Former assistant to President Nelson Mandela
What Mandela Taught Me is La Grange's second book and follows her international best selling memoir, Good Morning, Mr Mandela (2014) .
She soon changed her view of him.
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