Madikizela-Mandela has been seeking R3,5- million from British television for her life story, report Rehana Rossouw and Tangeni Amuphadi report
CASH-STRAPPED Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has made an extraordinary approach to British television: she is offering to ”tell all” for R3,5 million (500 000).
A draft contract by Randburg-based business consultant, Udo Froese, was prepared last year for the British ITN commercial network. It was subsequently altered with handwritten insertions to read: ”ITN/BBC”. Madikizela-Mandela’s close friend, Hazel Crane, initiated the negotiations.
The BBC was approached by Froese in December with an offer of of 500 000 for the interview. However, the BBC does not usually pay for interviews. When this policy was pointed out to Froese he asked whether the BBC would at least pay ”expenses” of going to London.
Despite numerous attempts to contact Madikizela-Mandela and Froese this week, neither was available for comment.
ITN said this week that the draft contract was more than a year old. ”It was never taken up by us and we never interviewed her,” said a spokesperson in London, Anne Weir.
ITN’s negotiations with Madikizela-Mandela failed because the network was unable to secure full editorial control for itself.
After being dropped by ITN, Madikizela- Mandela’s representative tried to sell the idea to other networks. The SABC was also approached.
A senior executive at the SABC said this week that although the corporation was not in the business of ”chequebook journalism”, the offer had been tempting because it was couched as an opportunity to get her on camera ”spilling everything”.
”We were told networks were fighting with each other to get that contract with Madikizela-Mandela and we attempted to find out what it entailed in November last year,” the executive said.
”The problem was that her representative wouldn’t be pinned down on what was meant by ‘spilling everything’. We couldn’t get any concrete information on what she would say on camera.
”Winnie has now priced herself out of the market. She isn’t even prepared to give a small sound-bite to the SABC without being paid. And all that means is that she doesn’t get much airtime.”
A detailed draft contract sent to ITN and BBC set out both terms of payment and suggested some editorial control by Madikizela-Mandela.
Her bank account details were supplied and she asked that her auditor have access to ITN’s account books to scrutinise the costs ”as they pertain” to the programme.
In addition, she asked that the network undertake to arrange at least one meeting between the interviewer and herself prior to recording.
A draft contract gave ITN the sole discretion to appoint a director, interviewer and all personnel who were to work on the programme.
However, in the amended version, which inserted the BBC’s name, a handwritten change gave Madikizela-Mandela the right to veto the interviewer.
Madikizela-Mandela, who has been in serious financial trouble in recent years, is currently raising cash by selling small bottles of soil removed from the garden of the Soweto house she once shared with President Nelson Mandela. The bottles sell at R50 each.
In 1995, an air charter firm attempted to seize her furniture and other assets to cover a R116 000 bill.
She was sued by Foster Webb Air for the hire of a Lear jet which had flown her and other passengers to Angola in 1993, allegedly to conclude a diamond deal.
Her financial difficulties also came to light in 1995 when Absa Bank was granted a default judgment ordering her to pay R505 206 owing on the bond on her Orlando West home.
During her divorce proceedings last year it was disclosed that her monthly expenses exceeded her earnings by R90 000. She earns R16 000 a month as an MP.
Documents before the court showed that President Mandela spent more than R3- million to fund her lifestyle between February 1990 and June 1995.
Earlier this year she was told that she had to pay the government more than R100 000 from her own pocket to cover half the cost of an unauthorised 1994 trip to Ghana which she undertook while deputy minister for arts, culture, science and technology.
The state attorney is attempting to recover R37 537 from Madikizela-Mandela for the unauthorised use of official motor vehicles in Gauteng and the Western Cape.