Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival

DIRECTOR: Lebogang Rasethaba | South Africa | 2015 | 52min

Andrew Mlangeni prefers to remember himself as one of the ‘backroom boys’, a lesser known struggle hero, and the 11th accused in the Rivonia trial alongside Nelson Mandela. But his contribution to the end of apartheid was profound. Like Mandela, he had committed himself to an ideal for which he was prepared to die. After 26 years imprisoned on Robben Island, Mlangeni emerged a respected member of the ANC, epitomising the values that made possible a democratic South Africa. Rasethaba assembles many of the major names in South African struggle-history to recount Mlangeni’s life. Present too is Mlangeni himself, and his two daughters whose missed childhoods are the only bitter memory that haunts Mlangeni about his devotion to the struggle.

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