As a freedom fighter in the campaign against apartheid, you wouldn’t think that Membathisi Mdladlana would have had much to learn from B.C. schoolteachers.

But that’s what Mdladlana, now South Africa’s high commissioner to Canada, says he was doing back in the early 1990s: learning how to organize unions and strike actions from members of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.

“They’re old now, but those guys were frequently visiting South Africa,” he told the Straight. “We used to hide them in the boot [trunk] of the car because they were not allowed to go into the townships.

“Guys like Larry Kuehn,” Mdladlana continued. “These British Columbian educators were doing stellar work in South Africa, assisting us to be free. And so I’m so excited that I’m going to be with them celebrating South African Freedom Day.”

April 27 marks the 20-year anniversary of South Africa’s first post-apartheid election.

In a telephone interview, Kuehn, who’s still with the BCTF, recalled adventures he shared with Mdladlana.

“It was a fascinating period in social development, when you saw what happened between 1990 and 1994,” he told the Straight. “There was a sense of everybody realizing that the old rules were gone and asking what the new rules were for how they live with each other.”

Freedom Day events in Vancouver this year stretch across three days, starting on April 25.

The celebration begins at City Hall with a raising of the South African flag, for which Mdladlana will be in attendance. The high commissioner is then scheduled to deliver a talk about democracy and the legacy of Nelson Mandela on April 26 at SFU Harbour Centre. He’s also going to be at a gala at the Vancouver Public Library (Central Branch, Alice McKay Room) later that evening. Finally, there’s a free cultural celebration happening at the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 27.

This year’s Freedom Day holds extra significance on account of Mandela’s death in December 2013.

“He was the embodiment of the struggle that we fought for,” said Mdladlana, an old friend of Mandela’s. “We’re going to miss him.”