On this Mandela Day (July, 18), eParkeni dug up an article published around this time 3 years ago on the City Press newspaper. Although the piece garnered the writer a few pats on the back as well as an interview on the Johannesburg-based radio station, PowerFM, it mostly saw him eaten up alive on various social media platforms. Sadly, the edited published piece is behind a paywall, but at least we have the original draft with a few minor changes to celebrate one of the finest men to have ever walked amongst humanity.
Oprah Winfrey knew it was either time to build a new school, plan a children’s Christmas party or whip out a cheque book whenever he would call. Both the late Princess Diana and The King of Pop came knocking on his door;, Bono sat at his side and Queen Elizabeth herself had reconciled that apart from Madiba, nobody would dare to call her by her first name. Although of royal blood himself, his ways were endearingly common.
Not digging the universal bureaucratic garb, for one, our late statesman would show up in untucked shirts, a preference that saw stiff conservatives foaming at the mouth. That’s not very presidential they sneered. But this was Madiba. Everything he touched turned to gold and eventually even these uptight squares would soon see the light.
Cognoscenti will not have forgotten the Madiba jive, arguably the most insipid dance since the twalatza, that was nevertheless, thanks to the Old Man’s universal popularity, all the rage back in the 90s.
As the world celebrates Nelson Mandela Day on July 18, one could labour this praising of the man but what would be the point?
The latter years of Madiba’s life were mired in conspiracy theory, criticism and outright ingratitude. Posthumously, the BBC’s most influential politician of the 20th century according to one survey, is in some circles remembered less as a hero than a pawn who sold out to white interests.
Despite that the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) were multiparty negotiations evidently does not exempt Madiba from being labelled a singular rogue traitor. But, applying this train of thought consistently, it could also be seen as a back-handed compliment acknowledging him, albeit begrudgingly, as the indisputable father of our democracy. But as is their wont, the voices of dissent thrive on playing to the gallery; “a stage-managed Nelson Mandela” the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) Julius Malema once scoffed. “Sellout” has become the slander synonymous with his name amongst the youth.
Who’s to say they are wrong? Indeed, post-apartheid, the white establishment was allowed to have their cake and eat it. They zealously held on to the land, remained de facto overlords of the economy and nobody but Eugene De Kock went to jail for apartheid crimes during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
But to pin where we are as a nation squarely on Madiba’s shoulders is not only to feign ignorance to the unfavourable conditions of the struggle era but is to turn a blind eye to the rot of nowadays. “Violent elements, often supported by far-right groups, were killing dozens of the ANC’s own members. Some thought civil war a real possibility. Madiba not only prevented that but broadly achieved everything he sought in the negotiations (thanks in part to Mr Ramaphosa, who led the ANC team in talks with the National Party)” reads The Economist of the political climate around the times of CODESA. Even a minimally-trained militiaman will point out that one should never expect grand spoils at the negotiating table if you did not first win on the battlefield. Madiba and his acolytes worked with the little they had, and, with one of the most efficient armies on the continent still in the hands of rabid white racists, there was not much to bargain with. Evidently, this is an inconvenient truth for naysayers to swallow.
Moreover, there’ve been no less than five black-led administrations since Madiba voluntarily walked away from a possible second term. That’s 21 years of Auditors-General consistently releasing damning reports of fruitless and wasteful expenditure, material irregularities and irregular expenditure at our municipalities – this year at a staggering R32 billion. So commonplace is the looting that one does not bat an eyelid to appalling headlines like: Beneficiaries of Eskom’s multibillion-rand ‘error payment’ named. We know that so-called leaders fed gluttonously in the bottomless troughs of the arms deal and state capture because, as Prof Mcebisi Ndletyana aptly puts it; “Corruption is a network that involves politicians across the hierarchy of government.” So any deflection that shifts the focus away from the prevalent plunder to an inconsequential history, bodes well for the leeches.
One gets that when there is a vacuum of facts and good reasoning, people fall easily into the blame-game. We know that the ANC have inherited an infrastructure that was meant to cater for a white minority. Rightfully, we blame apartheid for the costly catching-up. But what do we say of the vast monies that have and continue to disappear from our SOEs? Under government’s laughable watch, the spaza shop industry has almost entirely been wrested from black hands. We then blame migrants, some of whom are refugees from war-torn countries who arrive here with nothing but the money stuck inside their underwear according to one Institute for Race Relations study. Now, for the woes of a moribund economy we blame a dead man. When will the current deadwood in parliament and in our municipalities who are most deserving of this ire get what’s coming to them? When will we accept that dead men can do nothing more for the living?
Linguistically “sellout” is a curious choice of slander. Especially considering how Madiba, at the risk of his own political credibility, unyieldingly embraced the pariahs of the west; the late(s) Yasser Arafat, Muammar Gaddafi and Fidel Castro purely out of principle. Today he is being compared to a president who appointed obscure carpetbaggers to critical cabinet positions. Had it not been for a vigilant civil society, The weekend Special minister would have likely given a comatose economy its coup de grace. The same Nelson Mandela who popularly asked of George W. Bush; “who does he think he is” is mentioned in the same breath as men who did not object when an Indian family sought to make a personal piggy bank of our national coffers. When Madiba thought to donate a portion of his salary because he thought it too much, today we have leaders who don’t think that the billions lost to corruption were enough. They wanted even more, broaching the Russians for a dubious nuclear deal to further eat from.
The crowd-rousing call for a new “revolution” and “war” usually come from people whose only reference to either realities is gleaned from documentaries and Hollywood action movies. On one video, for instance, Julius Malema is seen firing what appears to be an R-5 rifle into the air. But I wonder if he’s aware that in war you fire at other people. And they fire right back. As a society the onus is upon us to see through the lies; to separate the wheat from the chaff. And before we believe the conspiracy theories we must first remember that it was his ANC who were the first to steal some of the money meant for the funeral of the nation’s finest son.
As somebody who has seen his fair share of holding cells, in my book anybody who grinds 27 years “ezantsi” for the freedom of others is worthy of more than just a modicum of credit. That’s why I will gladly be doing my 67 minutes on this Mandela Day. For such a towering figure, it’s the least I can do.