Perth Voice Interactive

“ONE man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” says Mt Lawley MP and South African ex-pat Michael Sutherland.

“Some people think of Nelson Mandela’s early years as controversial, but you have to look at his life in totality.

“Apartheid was iniquitous and demeaning towards black people.

“I respect Mandela and the monumental changes he achieved.”

Mr Sutherland emigrated from apartheid-era South Africa in 1987, in search of a more egalitarian society.

He was 32 and working as a lawyer in his home town of Johannesburg.

Black lawyers were not allowed in the same chambers as him, mixed-marriage was a criminal offence and the “insidious” Nationalist propaganda machine stifled democracy and the free press.

“I thought there was going to be a civil war,” Mr Sutherland says. “I was sick of the Nationalists and the fetters they put on society—at best they were myopic, ideologues; at worst, bullies and thugs.

“As amazing as it seems now, the ANC were relegated to non-people—it was disgusting.”

“You never want to leave your country because it’s your home, but I just couldn’t see how anything was going to change at that point—I had to get out.”

Mr Sutherland rebuilt his life in Perth, working a solicitor and quietly forging a political career that saw him become a Perth councillor and the capital city’s deputy mayor.

He has held the seat of Mt Lawley for the Liberals since 2008 and in 2013 became speaker of the legislative assembly.

“While Mandela was in gaol for nearly three decades, he slipped out the public’s consciousness,” Mr Sutherland recalls. “The Nationalists banned the ANC and other dissenting voices, so the press couldn’t publish any quotes opposing the government.

“As amazing as it seems now, the ANC were relegated to non-people—it was disgusting.”

Despite retaining a deep-seated fondness for South Africa, he has only ventured back once since the fall of apartheid.

“I needed time away from all the politics and hubbub of the place, but something deep inside drew me back in 2011,” says the 59-year-old.

“It’s still far from perfect and people are concerned about corruption and the nationalisation of industry, but Mandela changed things for the better. The most remarkable testament to the man is that when he got out of gaol after 27 years he wasn’t full of hatred and seeking revenge.

“He also managed to persuade people who had been imprisoned with him to forgive.

“That was the mark of the man.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK