South Africa Has a lot of Nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Russian Propaganda Uses It | Mondli Makhanya

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Mondli Makhanya is one of South Africa's leading editors. He began his career as a journalist in 1990, the year Nelson Mandela was released from prison after nearly 30 years of incarceration. This marked the end of apartheid in South Africa and the beginning of democratic changes in the country. However, until 1994, the threat of civil war in South Africa remained very real. Some people fought for equal rights and freedoms for the Black population, others clung to segregation and the dominance of racist ideologies, and some even dreamed of restoring the Zulu kingdom in these territories.

As a reporter, Mondli Makhanya documented the emergence of democratic South Africa. He had the opportunity to closely observe anti-apartheid activists who had once been his idols. However, up close, he realized that some of them were not as honest and virtuous as he had believed. Despite many challenges, compromises, and lengthy negotiations, South Africa elected its first Black president, Nelson Mandela, in 1994. Mandela focused his efforts on forging a unified nation from the diverse South African populace.

Over the following decades, Makhanya witnessed both the country's prosperity and its decline, as well as its return to prominence among Africa's leading nations. He describes Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as aggression and is convinced that modern Russia is the complete antithesis of South Africa’s democratic values. Among the Russian war crimes, the abduction of Ukrainian children shocked him the most. His 2023 visit to Ukraine was met with mixed reactions back home, with some urging the journalist to visit Moscow and give the other side a platform as well.

Journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk speaks with Mondli Makhanya about his childhood during apartheid, why South Africans feel nostalgic about the Soviet Union and how Russian propaganda exploits this, how Ukraine can share its story with the Global South, and how South Africans view Elon Musk, who is of South African origin.