Heritage month unlocks the secrets of the 'Rainbow Makers' on SABC2

For the 'Celebrating Twenty Years of Democracy initiative, 'Rainbow makers', a four-part series produced by Emmy Award winner Mandy Jacobson will be shown on SABC 2 during Heritage Month in September 2014.

The Ichikowitz Family Foundation, through the African Oral History Archive (AOHA), provides this unknown series.

"Much of our history was politically sensitive, or subversive. Some of it has remained hidden and even forgotten. AOHA was created as a global effort to record and showcase the continent's acclaimed or unknown history makers, giving unprecedented access to all those who were at the heart of events that shaped South Africa's modern history," says Mandy Jacobson.

"These narratives are the entry points for us, young and old, to embark on the journey to know our past. The Rainbow Makers series pays tribute to some of the champions that paved the way forward, towards the 20 Years of South African Democracy we enjoy today."

Series

The four part series includes;

• A Tribute to the Frontline States - 14 September 2014 - Presented by Shaka Sisulu, a child of exile himself and grandson of renowned freedom -fighters Walter and Albertina Sisulu, this portrait recognises the extraordinary alliance known as "The Frontline States." The film's unique talking points are the extraordinary intertwined backstories from Angola, Zambia and Mozambique which describe how three generations of Sisulu's -Walter, Max, and Shaka came to be re-united after living apart, in exile for three decades.

• Ten Year Tightrope: Rebels with a Cause - 21 September 2014 - This is the story of a small band of men, many of them leaders of South Africa's former National Party government, who turned their backs on their history, traditions and belief systems. Men who, in spite of a history that defined the laager, the wagon and the gun as the safeguards for their language and identity, abandoned the notion of nationhood as an exclusive one, and worked for an inclusive and common democratic ideal. Narrated by actress Gretha Fox, whose own history is intertwined, Ten Year Tightrope reveals the personal histories and behind the scenes stories of Roelf Meyer, Sampie Terreblanche, Leon Wessels, 'Pik' Botha, Barend du Plessis, and Frederick van Zyl Slabbert: Rebels with a Cause.

• Plot for Peace - 28 September - this multi award winning and internationally acclaimed film tells of working in the shadows between the Marxist and apartheid regimes of Angola and South Africa. Businessman Jean-Yves Ollivier reveals the untold story of how he helped broker changes that shook a nation. For the first time; heads of state, generals, diplomats, spies and anti-apartheid fighters reveal secret dealings and the fact that the end of apartheid and Mandela's release were intrinsically linked to the end of the Cold War - that, without the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban and South African troop withdrawals from Angola, Mandela would probably have remained in prison for a lot longer. Key figures featured include Roelof "Pik" Botha, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Mathews Phosa, Cuba's African Hand, Jorges Risquet and USA mediator, Chester Crocker.

• The Foreign Minister - 05 October - The longest serving Foreign Minister in the world, Roelf 'Pik' Botha filled a niche as a flamboyant messenger between two warring worlds; between that of the apartheid government he represented and those on the outside who strongly condemned his country's politics. A very charming, yet very controversial master of geo-politics, Pik remains enigmatic to many. Pik Botha vociferously defended apartheid but later was instrumental in tearing it down; thus becoming one of the few ministers who survived to serve in both governments.