Element Magazine - July 2014 Element Magazine - July 2014 | Page 6

GLOBAL MINDSHIFT

planet
One step
behind
the legend
Before he was assigned as Nelson
Mandela’s personal bodyguard, Rory
Steyn wished him dead. Here’s how the
great ‘Madiba’ won him over.

Photo: AP

By Jamie Joseph

“I

owe so much to Madiba.”
So says Rory Steyn, the former chief bodyguard of
Nelson Mandela during his presidential years – from 1994
to 1999.
Steyn is coming to New Zealand in August, a muchanticipated highlight of the 2014 TEDxAuckland line-up.
He says the global icon, affectionately known as Madiba,
had a huge influence on him: “The lessons gained while
protecting a true legend is something that translates into
my life every day.”
In 1994 Rory Steyn was a young white police officer
with an ugly past. He had been actively involved in the
harassment of senior anti-apartheid activists, and he was
a typical conservative South African policeman who saw
Nelson Mandela as a terrorist. When Steyn was assigned
to Mandela’s protection it was no more than a formal
administration handover from