South Africa

Press, 5 August 1988, Page 12

South Africa

Sir, —Richard Attenborough said publicly, that “Cry Freedom" was made to improve the international image of the A.N.C. The A.N.C. had veto power over the screen play and Oliver Tambo’s son was the “consultant.” Azanian People’s Organisation (A.Z.A.P.0.) leaders threatened to drive the film off the screen if it was shown in South Africa, because of the lies and discrepancies. (The subsequent bombings proved they meant it, so the South African Government was compelled to withdraw the film.) Biko and Woods were not friends; Biko was not a “gentle and noble man,” as his racist and bloodthirsty poems show. Woods did not “swim the crocodileinfested, fully flooded Thele River” to escape South Africa; he walked over the bridge across the' tiny shallow Thele River, admitting later he could have used an exit permit. Soweto riots, 1976; black policemen did the shooting. Woods wanted white policemen on the screen because blacks shooting blacks would be too confusing. — Yours, etc.,

JOAN WILKINSON. August 2, 1988.

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