Peter Hain MP meeets Nelson Mandela's former prison minister in Mill Hill church talk (From Times Series)

Peter Hain MP meeets Nelson Mandela's former prison minister in Mill Hill church talk

4:10pm Wednesday 13th April 2011 in News By Alex Hayes

FORMER cabinet minister Peter Hain MP came to Mill Hill yesterday to speak with the man who was Nelson Mandela’s minister during his time in prison.

Reverend Harry Wiggett, who was the former South African president’s confidant during his incarceration in Robbben Island, is a visiting minister at the John Keble Church in Deans Lane.

Mr Hain, a prominent cabinet minister for both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, lived in South Africa as a child and his parents were anti-apartheid activists, and has recently penned a biography about Mr Mandela.

Canon Chris Chivers, the recently installed vicar of the church who has worked as in South Africa himself, said: “Harry Wiggett is with us as our Holy Week and Easter preacher this year.

“It seemed like a chance too good to miss to have him in conversation with Peter Hain, one of the most tenacious of anti-apartheid activists, about the man that both of them have got to know well from different perspectives, and who is regarded as one of the world's great icons.

“If anyone can help our troubled times it's surely the example of Nelson Mandela."