Madiba: 25 Years On

Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg

Twenty-five years ago today, James "Buster" Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson to win the heavyweight boxing crown, Todd Eldredge won the US Male Figureskating Championship and East beat West 130-113 in the NBA All-Star Game.

I was just about to turn five, and was completely unaware of all of these things.  However, despite my young age, I was aware that there was a huge amount of excitement about a man being released from prison on the other side of the planet and that this happening was going to make the world a better place.  I remember watching TV reports showing the man and his wife walking hand and hand, their fists in the air in what I later learnt was the Amandla or power salute.  The man was, of course, Rolihlahla (better known as Nelson) Mandela.  As I grew up, my interest in this man and his country grew and grew and he came to have more and more of an influence on my life.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those who places Mandela on some kind of saintly pedestal.  As I spend time in schools and see children learning about Mandela, one of my real frustrations is when they paint him as some kind of unerring pacifist, but this is far from the truth.  By his own admission, Mandela was no Gandhi - to him non-violence was not a moral principle but a tactic which should only be employed so long as it was useful.  Indeed, Mandela founded the "MK" - the militant wing of the freedom struggle.  However, it was Mandela's response to his release from prison that makes him something of a hero to me.

After 27 years of imprisonment, to emerge not only without bitterness or seeking revenge but to actively build peace, harmony and reconcilliation still blows my mind.  In his first speech as a free man, he quoted his own words from his trial in 1964:

"I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination.  I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live in harmony and with equal opportunities.  It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to achieve, but if needs be, it is an idea for which I am prepared to die."

Mandela spent the remaining years of his life, many of them as South Africa's elected president, trying to bring about this vision.  Nearly a quarter of a century later, we sat in Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton enjoying a meal and drinks surrounded by South Africans of every background, free from colour bars and all regarded as equals.  We watched black and white children playing together in school grounds and met many confident, empowered young people from all of South Africa's ethnic groups.  On the face of things, job done.

Or is it?  While apartheid seems a long time ago and South Africa enjoys a rich multiculturalism and a democracy open to all, there are clearly still remnants of old divisions.  Much of the service industry and most low-paid jobs are still occupied solely by black Africans, while much of South Africa's wealth still rests with the white community.  The dominance of the ANC in government has led many to distrust the authorities while corruption within the state seems commonplace.  Many townships are still languishing in poverty, and many are no-go areas for police making them hotbeds for violent crime.  The justice system is creaking, with delays so long in bringing some suspects to trial that witnesses can no longer remember what they witnessed.

Today, Kathadra, a fellow prisoner of Mandela, said, "It is disheartening and of great concern to me that, 25 years on, we still see blatant acts of racism being perpetrated.  We have made significant progress since 1994, but racism still lurks under the surface... It worries me when [young people] are being separated in classrooms based on race... We need to pay more attention to youth development so that young people can become agents of non-racialism."

Another of Mandela's comrades, Laloo Chiba, claimed to be "extremely disturbed to see that racial discrimination carries on in a big way.  I never thought that evidence of racism would be so rife 20 years after democracy."

25 years after the release of Madiba (to use his clan name), there is much to celebrate in what has been achieved in this wonderful country, but it is perhaps also an occasion to be reminded that the ideal which Mandela stood for has not yet been fully achieved and that we should all show something of Mandela's resolve and do all we can to fight injustice and its causes.

To quote Sello Hatang, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation,

"Some of the responsibility that we carry most is that of reconcilliation, the issue of equality and also non-racialism.  Twenty-five years ago, we said we would build a non-racial society.  Are we there yet?  Madiba says that one question that should bother each one of us when we wake up in the morning is, 'Am I doing enough to help build a country of my dreams?'"