Many people know him as ‘the Mandela lawyer’ but there was so much more to anti-apartheid legal eagle, George Bizos.
Now South Africans will get to learn more about the man and what he stood for in M-Net’s new documentary based on his life.
On 16 December, the Day of Reconciliation, George Bizos: Icon, a documentary about the late Greek-South African human rights lawyer will air.
The documentary will give viewers an intimate look at the life and work of one of South Africa’s most prominent struggle figures and gives them an opportunity to learn about the man that helped shape our democracy.
The documentary interviews the likes of former president Thabo Mbeki, former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, as well as Bizos’s children and grandchildren. It’s a fitting tribute to a man who legally represented the likes of Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Govan Mbeki and Walter Sisulu.
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He is known for his legal abilities; but viewers will get an insight into his life and find out things like him being an avid gardener with a passion for nature.
Senior counsel advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, who worked with the late stalwart says: “We would be sitting in the front of his house, and he would just leave us to water the plants or do something in the garden and he would come back and say, ‘that’s it, I’ve got the answer!’’
As an advocate for political prisoners held at the Old Fort Prison in Johannesburg (now the site of South Africa’s Constitutional Court) he would take salads and fruits from his garden to give to his clients.
Viewers will also learn about Bizos the boy, who came to South Africa on a boat as a refugee from Greece. His first impressions of South Africa when he stepped off the vessel in Durban would become emblazoned in his mind and shape the human rights advocate he would become.
“Black men pulling rickshaws – as poor as some of the villagers in Greece were. There wasn’t such poverty or lack of humanity to people the way that I saw in Durban,” Bizos said.
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He went on to on to represent freedom fighters in some of our country’s most historic legal events, including the Rivonia trial and Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
It’s said that he instructed Nelson Mandela to add the qualification "if needs be" to his trial address during the Rivonia Trial, which is credited with sparing him from a sentence of death.
Post-democracy, he participated in drawing up South Africa’s Interim Constitution and was appointed by Madiba to the Judicial Services Commission. He led the team for the South African Government to argue that the death penalty was unconstitutional. Later, he represented the families of some of the miners who were killed by South African police during the 2012 Marikana massacre.
The documentary will air on M-Net DStv channel 101 on 16 December at 10pm.
