Let’s not forget that there was actually someone in this world who thought that our late president and anti-apartheid revolutionary, Nelson Mandela, was a professional athlete.
A video has resurfaced on social media detailing Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender, Jonathan Bernier, referring to Madiba as “one of the most known athletes in the world”.
This comes after the interviewer approached Bernier at an event where Mandela was being honoured on the first anniversary of his passing [2014] and said: “Just wanted to ask you. Obviously Nelson Mandela, one of the most significant historical figures of the 20th century… what knowledge or awareness did you have of him growing up”.
Bernier responded to this by saying “He is one of the most known athletes in the world and a lot of impact in any kind of sport that he did. Even playing hockey, everyone knows him right. From being the type of person he was off the ice and on the ice. But you know he changed a lot while he was with us. He’s a tremendous guy.”
This didn’t sit well with many people on social media as one Twitter user said “I feel like if your going to go to a charity event you should do some research on the charity” while another said “It’s a good thing hockey worked out for Jonathan Bernier, because Foreign Service career wasn’t going to pan out”.
But according to a report in The Toronto Star, Bernier was quick to mention how embarrassed he was: “I’m embarrassed. I didn’t mean to offend him, his legacy. I got flustered with the red carpet and I was nervous. I think everyone makes mistakes and that was me that night.”
One Facebook user who reposted this video added a caption saying “When you don’t study for the exam and wing it” while the video is titled “Which Nelson Mandela is this guy talking about?”
Watch it here:
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Picture: Screenshot from video
