Attorney Nat Bregman, who Nelson Mandela ascribes as his first “white friend” in his biography “Long Walk to Freedom,” will be laid to rest at West Park Cemetery at 11am on Sunday 24 July.

Bregman died on Wednesday night in hospital at the age of 88. On Thursday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation extended condolences to the family of the man Madiba always called Natie. The two last met in August 2010 (picture) accompanied by Nat’s daughter Adina.

The two men shared an office in Johannesburg for three years in the 1940s at the offices of attorneys Sidelksy, Witkin and Eidelman, where they did their articles together.

The foundation said that in a recent interview with the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, Bregman recalled how, at the time, he was a member of the Communist Party of SA and invited Mandela to attend "mixed parties" with him, something which "impressed" Mandela.

In his autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom", Mandela described Bregman as "bright, pleasant, and thoughtful. He seemed entirely colour-blind and became my first white friend," said Madiba.

The foundation also recalled a Mandela anecdote about how Bregman used a sandwich to demonstrate communism – see story from The Saturday Star, below.

Bregman and Mandela remained friends over the years. Having done his articles at a Jewish firm and having his first white (and life-long) friend being Jewish was just the beginning of a very long list of Jewish friends Mandela was to make. Many SA Jews were involved in the struggle with him as well – see article on SAJBD chairman Zev Krengel’s recognition of this just prior to Nat’s passing, and the announcement of a forthcoming book on MADIBA & SA JEWRY to be published by the Board next month.

Bregman leaves his wife, Rosa, six children, 16 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
He will be buried at West Park Cemetery in Johannesburg at 11am on July 24.

The following article was published in The Saturday Star

Nat Bregman, funnyman with heart

It was Nelson Mandela’s first lesson in communism. Sitting in their shared office at law firm Witkin, Sidelsky & Eidelman, Mandela was handed a sandwich by fellow clerk Nat Bregman.

“He says ‘Nelson, hold the other side’,” recalled Mandela in an interview decades later.

“And he says, ‘Break’, so I broke; and he says, ‘Eat’, so he also started eating, and he says ‘Now that indicates what’s the philosophy of the Communist Party – we share everything that we have.’”

On Wednesday night, 60 years after the lesson, the man who Mandela described as his “first white friend” passed away from kidney failure.

He was 88.

A Lithuanian immigrant, Bregman arrived in South Africa as a four-year-old, speaking only Yiddish. Through a series of odd jobs, he put himself through university, where he studied law. In 1941 he began his articles with Witkin, Sidelsky & Eidelman, and shared an office with Mandela.

He invited the future president to his first “mixed parties”.

“There were separate lifts for white and black people in the building where they worked,” said Verne Harris, archivist of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

“Mandela would use the ‘black’ lifts and Nat would always ride with him.”

He was “bright, pleasant and thoughtful”, wrote Mandela in his biography Long Walk to Freedom: “He seemed entirely colour-blind and became my first white friend.”

When he was released from prison, Mandela invited his former colleague to dinner, and Bregman continued to visit him throughout the years that followed.

They last saw each other in August last year.

“He saw my dad and said ‘How’s things going, Natie?’ That’s what he called my dad – Natie,” remembered Bregman’s daughter Adina.

A conveyancing lawyer by day, Nat was a comedian by night.

He performed at an amateur theatre in Northcliff “and every barmitzvah and wedding, up on stage, telling jokes”, said Adina.

But in recent years Bregman battled with his health.

He died on Wednesday night in Milpark Hospital.

“He just faded away beautifully,” said his wife Rosa.

“It still feels like he’s here.”

Bregman is survived by Rosa, their six children, 16 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
He will be buried at West Park Cemetery at 11am on Sunday.