Miracle Rising: South Africa to hit DSTV screens

Dimension Data, Multichoice, DSTV and Combined Artists have come together to produce  Miracle Rising: South Africa.

The documentary is about how South Africa fended of Civil War after Nelson Mandela was released in 1990 and eventually had successful elections in 1994.

Principle funder of the project and Chairman of Dimension Data Jeremy Ord said “When we became involved in this initiative over two years ago, the philosophy and principle behind the Group’s commitment is nation building. We wanted to remind the people of South Africa – and indeed the world – about how far South Africa has come since 11 February 1990.”

Far from being another documentary about Mandela only, it revisits the TRC hearings, and a lot of the violence from the early 90s such as the Bisho and Boipatong Massacre. It also fleetingly provides more information on how difficult the negotiations were during CODESA and the kind of compromise that had to be made by leaders to make the transition of political power a success.

The documentary has a delicate mix of high profile politicians involved in South Africa’s transition to democracy as well as American and European figures such as TV personalities, Mamphela Ramphele, Cyril Ramaphosa, Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton. All of them combine to share personal narratives and interpretations of South Africa’s seemingly impossible transition from Apartheid rule to being a democratic state.

The documentary is not without controversy, with Dr Geoffery Heald telling The Star his thesis called 'Learning amongst enemies: A phenomenological study of the South African Constitutional Negotiations from 1985 to 1988' and 'South Africa's voluntary relinquishment of its nuclear arsenal and accession to the treaty of on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in terms of international law' formed the basis of it.

Heald claims that he was not properly credited for his work, despite not having seen the documentary's final cut.

Heald has approached the court to ask that they declare the documentary a reproduction or adaptation of his work, however lawyers for Combined Artists, told the newspaper the documentary was original.

"The documentary is a historical documentary based on historical events that occurred in South Africa leading up to its democracy," Sim and Botsi Attorneys was quoted saying.

Miracle Rising: South Africa will have its television debut on HISTORY, channel 186 on DStv on Sunday, 10 February 2013 at 8:30pm. Thereafter, it will also be screened across the world on HISTORY to 300 million homes in over 150 countries, in more than 37 languages worldwide.

A date has not yet been confirmed, but Multichoice will also air the documentary on SABC. Content manager at Multichoice and Associate Producer of Miracle Rising Aletta Alberts said “It deserves to be seen by as many people as possible because it is such an important story in South Africa’s history.”