On Sunday (19 April 2009 at 16h00) Al Jazeera English premieres a special South African documentary called Forgotten Freedom Fighters.
The show looks at a group of apartheid freedom fighters, who've gone unacknowledged and who've never received the compensation they were promised in 1991.
A teaser for the show ... In 1991, the ANC suspended their armed struggle against the South African government. In 2009, the majority of former combatants are unemployed and still waiting for compensation promised to them.
Forgotten Freedom Fighters looks into the lives of a group of former combatants living in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra who have given up waiting and have decided to do something for themselves.
It also documents the unconventional use of “ecotherapy” to help former combatants deal with past trauma and move forward with their lives.
As South Africa gears up for general elections on 22 April 2009, Forgotten Freedom Fighters asks whether Jacob Zuma, a former freedom fighter himself, and widely believed to be the country’s next president, will address the issue of the forgotten men and women who helped bring democracy to the country.
The documentary will be broadcast four times between 19 and 21 April, at the following times:
Sunday, 19 April 2009 at 16h00
Monday, 20 April 2009 at 08h00
Monday, 20 April 2009 at 21h00
Tuesday, 21 April 2009 at 05h00
It's produced by Fort Greene Filmworks and Left Hand Films - creators of
Saving Soweto.
Al Jazeera English is on DStv Channel 406.