FORMER member of the security police in the Eastern Cape under the apartheid regime and a former mayor of East London, Donald Card, regarded hearing the news of the passing of former statesman Nelson Mandela among the saddest days of his life.
He spoke to the Dispatch from his Gonubie home last week.
He first met Mandela while giving evidence at the Rivonia Trial. Later he would meet up with Mandela under different circumstances.
A former Robben Island prisoner had tipped him off about the nature of coded letters coming out of the prison, and Card was assigned the task of scanning letters from the prison, copying anything suspicious and quickly sending the letter on to where it was destined.
In 1970, after he had resigned from the police force, a bag of letters from Robben Island landed on Card’s doorstep. Included in this bag were two black notebooks containing all Mandela’s letters written while on the since the late ’60s.
“But when it came to these two books, there was no posting these
island because they were all the letters that Mandela had written. There were 79 of them. I took those two books and threw them on top of my wardrobe,” recalled Card, adding he left them over three decades.
He made numerous attempts to get the books to Mandela after his release.
Finally, through the assistance of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, in 2004 Card was called to Johannesburg to hand the books to Mandela personally.
He remembers vividly when Mandela saw him that day, the late statesman, referring to Card’s appearance at the Rivonia trial, asked: “Do you still remember me because I can still remember you,” and the two old men chuckled.
The exchange of those notebooks is captured in the foundation’s book entitled: A Prisoner in the Garden – Opening Nelson Mandela’s Prison Archives.
In his speech that day, Mandela said: “I want you to see the symbolic significance of this event. Under the apartheid regime it was common practice for the authorities to take documents from those they regarded as
there
for enemies. Sometimes they used these documents as evidence in court cases. Sometimes they used them in various forms of intimidation. Sometimes they simply destroyed them ... I obviously wasn’t careful enough with my notebooks.”
“They represent the hope that we can recover memories and stories suppressed by the apartheid regime,” he had said.
The notebooks became the first acquisitions for the Centre of Memory. Card said the notebooks were valued at R25-million.
Another elderly East London man, Philip du Preez had been a warrant officer on Robben Island from 1977 to 1982 and has fond memories of the beloved hero.
He afforded Mandela his only contact visit during his incarceration.
On Friday, Du Preez said of Mandela’s passing: “I am a bit heart sore. My sincere condolences to his family and his friends. He’s gone to a better place. May he find rest and peace.” —
Madiba’s death saddens ex-security officer
He spoke to the Dispatch from his Gonubie home last week.
He first met Mandela while giving evidence at the Rivonia Trial. Later he would meet up with Mandela under different circumstances.
A former Robben Island prisoner had tipped him off about the nature of coded letters coming out of the prison, and Card was assigned the task of scanning letters from the prison, copying anything suspicious and quickly sending the letter on to where it was destined.
In 1970, after he had resigned from the police force, a bag of letters from Robben Island landed on Card’s doorstep. Included in this bag were two black notebooks containing all Mandela’s letters written while on the since the late ’60s.
“But when it came to these two books, there was no posting these
island because they were all the letters that Mandela had written. There were 79 of them. I took those two books and threw them on top of my wardrobe,” recalled Card, adding he left them over three decades.
He made numerous attempts to get the books to Mandela after his release.
Finally, through the assistance of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, in 2004 Card was called to Johannesburg to hand the books to Mandela personally.
He remembers vividly when Mandela saw him that day, the late statesman, referring to Card’s appearance at the Rivonia trial, asked: “Do you still remember me because I can still remember you,” and the two old men chuckled.
The exchange of those notebooks is captured in the foundation’s book entitled: A Prisoner in the Garden – Opening Nelson Mandela’s Prison Archives.
In his speech that day, Mandela said: “I want you to see the symbolic significance of this event. Under the apartheid regime it was common practice for the authorities to take documents from those they regarded as
there
for enemies. Sometimes they used these documents as evidence in court cases. Sometimes they used them in various forms of intimidation. Sometimes they simply destroyed them ... I obviously wasn’t careful enough with my notebooks.”
“They represent the hope that we can recover memories and stories suppressed by the apartheid regime,” he had said.
The notebooks became the first acquisitions for the Centre of Memory. Card said the notebooks were valued at R25-million.
Another elderly East London man, Philip du Preez had been a warrant officer on Robben Island from 1977 to 1982 and has fond memories of the beloved hero.
He afforded Mandela his only contact visit during his incarceration.
On Friday, Du Preez said of Mandela’s passing: “I am a bit heart sore. My sincere condolences to his family and his friends. He’s gone to a better place. May he find rest and peace.” —
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