MARK KEOHANE explains how SA Rugby magazine secured a world-exclusive photo shoot with Nelson Mandela in 2006.
In terms of rugby-writing career highlights, being in the press box at Ellis Park in 1995 when the Springboks beat the All Blacks to win the World Cup is my No 1 memory. It was a victory that was so much bigger than a rugby match. It was about a nation.
My other most significant World Cup memory was being in the press box at Eden Park in 2011 when the All Blacks beat France to win the World Cup for the first time in 24 years. It was also a victory that was so much bigger than a rugby match. It was about a nation.
Off the field, I was blessed to have met and spoken with the late Nelson Mandela on several occasions, both as part of the Springbok management and as a rugby journalist.
Every meeting with Mr Mandela was a highlight, but my magical Madiba moment came in 2006 when I was privileged to be part of a historic SA Rugby magazine cover shoot at his Houghton residence in Johannesburg. The shoot featured Mandela in a Springbok blazer for the first and only time.
I was also privileged to write the cover story on how Mandela saved the Springbok emblem because he felt it could represent unity for a new generation.
This cover has particular resonance when I looked at the most powerful images of Siya Kolisi hoisting the Webb Ellis Cup in Japan 13 years after the SA Rugby magazine iconic Madiba cover shoot.
The blurb to the feature article in 2006 read: ‘Once synonymous with oppression and apartheid, the actions of former president Nelson Mandela gave the Springbok emblem new meaning to all South Africans.’
The iconic photo shoot was a result of SA Rugby magazine’s desire to celebrate the Springboks’ centenary with something out of the ordinary and unique. I had spoken with Annelee Murray, the long-time Springbok head of public relations about the possibility of a cover shoot featuring Madiba alongside Bok coach Jake White and Bok captain John Smit.
Annelee and Zelda la Grange, who was Mandela’s long-serving private secretary, were good friends, and the two of them made the occasion possible. Even more significant, they arranged for a once-off Springbok blazer to be tailored to the late president’s specs, which he would wear at the shoot.
It was an incredible coup for SA Rugby magazine, but it would never have been possible without Zelda and Annelee. I am forever grateful to them.
GALLERY: Every cover since 1995
Annelee had John and Jake flown in and the only people present were the duo, Zelda, Annelee, myself, photographer Aubrey Jonsson and the great man himself.
Madiba had never before been photographed in a Bok blazer and it would never happen again. He put on the blazer, did the shoot, the blazer went off and straight into the Nelson Mandela Museum.
It is an iconic rugby cover … a world exclusive and a world rugby first when it came to Madiba. And after 300 issues of SA Rugby magazine, it remains my favourite cover.
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