Meghan Markle’s claim that people in South Africa “rejoiced in the streets” after her marriage to the Duke of Sussex has “surprised” Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Zwelivelile Mandela.
The Duchess of Sussex told The Cut magazine that a South African actor from the cast of the 2019 live-action version of The Lion King pulled her aside during the London premiere.
“He looked at me, and he’s just like [right],” Meghan recalled. “I just need you to know: When you married into [the royal family], we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison.”
But Zwelivelile said the joy of Black South Africans who celebrated Mandela’s release in 1990 “can never be compared to the celebration of someone’s wedding”.
The MP and tribal chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council told the MailOnline: “Madiba’s celebration was based on overcoming 350 years of colonialism with 60 years of a brutal apartheid regime in South Africa. So it cannot be equated to as the same.”
Mandela, the leader of the movement to end apartheid in South Africa, was released from prison after 27 years on 11 February 1990.
His freedom was celebrated widely throughout the country, with more than 100,000 people gathering outside Cape Town’s City Hall on the day of his release in anticipation for his first speech there.
Referring to Meghan’s anecdote, Zwelivelile added: “What is the value of people dancing in the street and changing President Nelson Mandela’s name when what they stand for is diametrically opposed to what he stood for?
“Nelson Mandela’s release from jail was the culmination of nearly 350 years of struggle in which generations of our people paid with their lives.
“It can never be compared to the celebration of someone’s wedding,” he continued.
Elsewhere in the lengthy interview, published for The Cut’s Fall Fashion issue, Meghan reflected on her estranged father, Thomas Markle, and said it “doesn’t have to be the same” for Prince Harry and Prince Charles.
She opened up about how the British tabloid press – with whom the couple have long had a fraught relationship – impacted their family relations.
“Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process’. It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision,” she said.
