Documentary on S.A.

Press, 22 June 1981, Page 17

Documentary on S.A.

From

KEN COATES

in Lon-

don

New Zealand television viewers will soon have the .opportunity to see a topical documentary oh-South Africa ■which should help promote an informed debate.on apartheid. The BBC said .that New Zealand television had pur : chased a "Panorama" programme, entitled; “South Africa — to the Last Drop.of Blood." which has just been screened to British audiences. • ■

There has been widespread interest in the documentary and it has been sold round the world. The "Panorama” team returned to South Africa five years after the Soweto riots to report on the current state of the countrv.

. .The BBC says . that after the riots thousands of youths left'the country to. "go .to military- training camps of the banned African National Congress.

Now they are returning fully trained with guns and explosives; and, in the 50minute programme, Peter Taylor discovers that inside South Africa there is a grow-

ing hut as yet largely unreported guerrilla war.' The programme. also includes a secretly; filmed interview with Winnie Mandela, wife of the. jailed Nationalist leader, who has herself been banned by the Government for 17 years for her outspoken " political views. ; : During the making of the film the team was twice stopped by security police, and arrested once. The programme includes interviews with the F'oreign Minister, Mr, Pik Botha: the Prime Minister, Mr P. W. Botha, and Bishop Desmond Tutu, who recently had his passport taken away by the Government. . It'also examines the growing power of black trade unions.

Television New Zealand ordered the “Panorama” programme on South Africa as soon as it was known to be available, said Mr Barry Parkin, head of overseas programme selection for the corporation. It will be shown on “Foreign Correspondent,” which screens on Saturday evenings on Twb. . >