You've got to hand it to him: when Michael Crick is on form, there’s no one better at administering the kind of torturous questioning that leaves senior politicians clammy and mumbling, and viewers peeking between fingers at an interview that more resembles the grisly aftermath of a medieval saint’s martyrdom.

And so it was during Theresa May’s much-vaunted trip to South Africa (which, aside from a rebadged EU trade deal and footage of the prime minister shuffling anxiously like someone who’s misplaced all their mates at Creamfields, hasn’t produced much) when the veteran political correspondent stepped up to question her. Specifically, he asked what she did personally in the 70s and 80s to secure Nelson Mandela’s freedom, ahead of a visit to Robben Island prison, where the PM was granted rare access to the cell in which Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years.

What followed was an increasingly tetchy May admitting that she hadn’t attended any protests or pickets against apartheid, and obdurately refusing to answer whether she had participated in either the goods or cultural boycott of South Africa – courses of action backed by such radical fringe organisations such as the United Nations General Assembly.

Instead the prime minister fell back on the repeated bleat that she supported “the work that the United Kingdom government did to ensure that it did give support where that support was needed."

It's unclear what precisely Theresa May meant by this. She might have been referring to Ted Heath’s pledge to end the arms embargo and resume sales of military equipment to the apartheid regime when the Conservatives won the 1970 election. Or it could have been Margaret Thatcher’s labelling of Nelson Mandela a “terrorist”, combined with her steadfast opposition to sanctions and the continuance of her husband Dennis Thatcher’s business interests in South Africa.

Maybe she was talking about former prime minister David Cameron’s 1989 visit to the country, paid for by an anti-sanctions lobbying firm. Perhaps it was the memory of the Federation of Conservative Students (former members including the speaker of the house John Bercow and Andrew “dogwhistle” Rosindell MP) printing posters and stickers calling for Nelson Mandela to be hanged that filled Theresa May with such pride.

Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Show all 39 1 /39 Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures British Prime Minister Theresa May reviews a military guard of honour at the State House in Nairobi. May wraps up a three day tour of Africa in Kenya as she seeks to drum up post-Brexit deals before quitting the European Union on a continent which has increasingly looked elsewhere for trade and investment AFP/Getty Images Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May in breaks into dance whilst meeting with scouts at the United Nations offices in Nairobi on the third day of her visit to Africa PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May in breaks into dance whilst meeting with scouts at the United Nations offices in Nairobi on the third day of her visit to Africa PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May in breaks into dance whilst meeting with scouts at the United Nations offices in Nairobi on the third day of her visit to Africa PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May dancing with students and staff at ID Mkize Secondary School in Cape Town PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May meets charity workers at a Salvation Army centre in Lagos, where modern slavery was discussed PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the State House in Nairobi to meet with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta welcomes Theresa May AP Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta address a press conference at the state house in Nairobi Reuters Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May with the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta at the State House in Nairobi PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the State House in Nairobi, to meet the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta, on the third day of her visit to Africa. PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May meets Nigerian President Buharia at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Nigeria EPA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May arrives in Abuja, Nigeria, on day two of her trip to Africa PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May arrives in Abuja, Nigeria on day two of her trip to Africa Reuters Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May arrives in Abuja, Nigeria on day two of her trip to Africa Reuters Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Nigerian President Buhari and Theresa May watch as the Nigerian Budget and National Planning Minister and the British Trade Policy Minister sign a bilateral agreement on Nigerian trade development EPA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May meets South African president Cyril Ramaphosa at DeTuynhuys Presidential Palace in Cape Town PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May meets students and staff at ID Mkize Secondary School in Cape Town, which is twinned with Whitby High School in Yorkshire PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May arrives in Abuja, Nigeria Reuters Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures The two schools are part of a British Council funded teacher exchange scheme called 'Connected Classrooms' AP Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures The Prime Minister enters the cell in which Nelson Mandela was held on Robben Island Cape Town PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May meets South African president Cyril Ramaphosa PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May dancing with students and staff at ID Mkize Secondary School in Cape Town EPA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa take part in the ceremony to hand over the bell of the SS Mendi AFP/Getty Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May and South African president Cyril Ramaphosa shake hands PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May poses for a picture with school children Reuters Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa take part in the ceremony to hand over the bell of the SS Mendi AFP/Getty Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May dancing with students and staff at ID Mkize Secondary School in Cape Town EPA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May exits stage right following an address to business leaders at the offices of First National Bank in Cape Town EPA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures A group of school children at the ID Mkhize Secondary School, take a selfie with a phone with a Union Jack cover Reuters Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures The Prime Minister is on day one of her trip to South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya on a trade mission designed to bolster the UK's post-Brexit fortunes PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May talks with students AP Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May speaks to business leaders at the offices of First National Bank in Cape Town EPA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May meets students and staff PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May is greeted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Reuters Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May speaks to staff at I.D. Mkize Secondary School PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May is greeted by schoolchildren waving British and South African flags AFP/Getty Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Theresa May speaks to students PA Theresa May visits Africa on trade trip – in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May walks with Nomvula Mokonyane - the South African Minister of Communications - as she arrives at Cape Town airport PA

Indeed, the Conservatives can hardly be said to have covered themselves in glory when it comes to having defended, aided and abetted the apartheid regime. But what is most telling about Theresa May’s comments to Michael Crick is her patently contemptuous attitude ("I think you know full well, Michael, that I didn't go on protests”) towards the actions that actually had a hand in bringing down apartheid.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain – including Claudia Jones, the godmother of the Notting Hill Carnival, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor of the exchequer, and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – heeded the call of the Anti-Apartheid Movement to picket South Africa House in London, campaigned for the release of South Africans detained without trial and even managed to save the lives of men condemned to hang like Solomon Mahlangu. By the mid-1980s, protesters and boycotters in Britain forced Barclays Bank to sell its subsidiaries in South Africa, as trade with Britain – which was once the market for 28 per cent of all of South Africa’s exports – plummeted.

You didn’t have to be extraordinarily far-sighted not to be caught out on the wrong side of history on apartheid; in the words of Julius Nyerere: “We are not asking you, the British people, for anything special. We are just asking you to withdraw your support from apartheid by not buying South African goods.”

The Robben Island press hoopla is just another example of how the history of the British establishment’s complicity in the apartheid regime has been deliberately whitewashed since 1993. This isn’t just about papering over the past, but restricting the political effectiveness of solidarity actions in the present. It’s striking that the tactics – boycotts, divestment, and sanctions – which, when normalised as a political tactic, caused considerable disruption to the South African economy, have since come under fierce attack when applied to Israel by Palestinian solidarity activists in the UK, including an attempt in 2016 by David Cameron’s government to ban the boycott of settlement produced goods by UK public institutions.

In her interview with Michael Crick, Theresa May praised Nelson Mandela’s “calm” and “statesmanlike” approach to fighting injustice – conveniently forgetting that it was Nelson Mandela’s founding of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of a Nation), and his insistence that armed struggle was a legitimate tactic to bring an unjust and violent state to the negotiating table, which landed him in prison in the first place. But maybe that was the savvy political move. Party leaders have been called terrorist sympathisers for less.