Saying "totsiens"

Tuesday 27th September

Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

As we set off towards the airport, traffic was very heavy and the reason became apparent as we approached the University of Cape Town.  Students were blocking the road in a protest against higher fees, calling for education to be free as described in the Freedom Charter.

In places, the protests are turning violent, which is extremely concerning to say the least, but at the moment, the ones ere are peaceful and good natured.

There's a general dissatisfaction with the ANC government everywhere we've been.  It seems that loyalty to the party of liberation has not been able to withstand the multiple corruption scandals of late, as the party's heavy losses in the recent local government elections have shown.  In the last few days, President Zuma has paid back a proportion of the Nkandla money, but it feels like rather too little too late.  It is clear he will now go, the only question is when.

"Enjoy the good exchange rate while you can," advised one local resident, "because when Zuma is gone, we will never allow this to happen again."

And that's the real story of South Africa.  It no longer shimmers with Mandela magic, but neither is it the failed state that some residents disgruntled with the fall of apartheid would have you believe.

Democracy is alive and well, there is a strong, independent judiciary and the office of the Public Protector is rooting out government corruption.  Things can only - and will only - continue to improve.

The repeated plea we've heard everywhere is for people to come here - the economy is dependent on foreign visitors.  And so that is my plea, too.  Visit.  This is the most geographically beautiful, ecologically fascinating and culturally diverse country in the world.  South African's are friendly and welcoming, their wildlife enthralling that there really is something for everyone - beaches, cities, wilderness, desert, luxury, basics and a retreat for the soul.

So visit.  And visit.  And visit again.  It will transform the way you see the world and will captivate your heart in a way that will never leave you.

I for one can't wait to get back...

Note: Since this diary entry was written, political events have moved apace in South Africa.  Thuli Madonsela has finished her term as Public Protector and her successor seems less enthusiastic in holding the government's feet to the fire.  Zuma is trying to block Madonsela's report into 'state capture' and her successor is not defending it.  Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is facing trumped up charges of fraud (for offering someone early retirement) in a bid to have him replaced with someone more Zuma-friendly.  South Africa has withdrawn from the International Criminal Court.  The student protests have become increasingly violent, with many deaths now occurring.  Rather than deal with the protests, Zuma took himself off to Kenya to discuss the urgent matter of avocado prices.  Many of these matters come before the highest court in the land in November and I truly hope and believe that South Africa's courts are strong and independent and that justice will take its course.

Die Eiland

Friday 23rd September

Hout Bay, Cape Town, Western Cape Province

Die Eiland

Looking out from Table Bay, just 12km from the shore sits the unmistakeable outline of Robben Island. 

As we sailed towards it on a modern catamaran with dolphins swimming alongside, it could not have been a more different arrival that that experienced by its prisoners who would be enclosed in darkness in the bowels of the Susan Kruger on the choppy sea.

The tour of the island began by bus, revealing the graves of its former leper colony, the warders' village and the house of Robert Sobukwe - a man deemed so dangerous the was not allowed with the other prisoners.

After that, we were shown around the Maximum Security Prison by one of its former inmates Zozo, who spent five years here from 1977-1982 for protesting during the Soweto Uprising of 1976.

The clanging of the metal doors is reminiscent of the opening credits of Porridge, but this is no HMP Slade, and the wardens here would have made Mr Mackay seem like Father Christmas.

Exercise yard and Mandela's garden

We were shown the admissions room, the censor's office where prisoners' letters were cut to shreds, the exercise yard (including Mandela's garden), the solitary confinement unity and the cells of B-section, but there's just one cell that most people are interested in - that of prisoner 466/64 - Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

Zozo used this opportunity, as he did many others, to preach Mandela's message of peace and reconciliation - "otherwise, this is all for nothing.  You must forogive.  You must forgive."

Clearly, though, this is not an easy experience for him.  Asked if it is important to him to tell his story, he replies, "No.  I do not want to be here - it is too traumatic.  But I need to feed my family."  As we pass the solitary confinement unit he mumbles, "They send you here and they do things to you.  Things I can't talk about."  As the tears well up in his eyes, it is difficult to realise that he has to relive these horrors multiple times each day for the benefit of tourists.

Mandela's cell

As we say farewell in D-section, he finishes with an impassioned plea - "Please, go home and tell everyone in your country that South Africa is an amazing country where all are equal before the law.  Encourage them to visit.  We need them, and we need their investment.  Please, tell people to come."

And so I do: Zozo is right - this is the most wonderful country and you really must visit.

After a very rough crossing back to the V&A Waterfront, we took a ride on the Cape Wheel to get a look over the bay. 

This was nothing, however, compared to the view from the top of Table Mountain, which we ascended by cable car.

Zozo

Die Eiland was clearly visible from the top, and the opposite is also true.  From Robben Island, Table Mountain loomed so large it must have offered Mandela and his comrades a constant and taunting glimpse of freedom.  A freedom - thank God - they were able to see in their lifetime.  For countless others, though, their part in the struggle did not allow them to see the benefits it won.

Looking from the mountain over the glorious white-sand beaches, the busy modern city, the lush vineyards of the winelands, Zozo's plea again comes to mind - this is a wonderful country, and you really must visit.

View from Table Mountain - the Beloved Country

Same sky, different horizons

Tuesday 13th September

Central Business District, Johannesburg, Gauteng Province

"We all live under the same sky, but each sees a different horizon."

Cheetah, Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre

So reads the introduction to the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre.

Cheetah, once having five species spread over four continents, are down to one species located in a few pockets of Africa.  As they prey on the livestock of pastoral farmers, they are routinely shot and their numbers have dwindled to a critical level.

Ann van Dyk grew up on a chicken farm in De Wildt, where she developed an interest in feeding the various wild cats that passed by.  Hearing of the chance to adopt three cheetah cubs in the 1970s, she decided to create a space for them on the farm and try to breed them.  Since then, she has established one of the largest cheetah breeding programmes and has released over 800 cheetah into the wild.

Perhaps more importantly, she has set up a programme to help the local population see a different horizon and conserve rather than kill the cheetah.

Lily exercising

A few cheetah which have had to be hand-reared (for medical or other reasons) and so cannot be released to the wild become her "ambassadors" - visiting schools, communities and farms to educate and develop a love for these animals.

It was three of these ambassador cheetah that we met early in the morning as they exercised by chasing a lure - rather like the rabbit a greyhound might chase at a racecourse.

First up was Lily, a fairly young cheetah who can easily reach a speed of 120 km/h.  Then comes Jules, a "king" cheetah bearing a striped rather than spotted pattern caused by a genetic mutation.  King cheetah are not bred because they do not stand a high chance of survival in the wild.  Lastly comes Harris, an ageing cheetah recovering from surgery.  He is less ken to run, and has worked out that if he sits still, the lure will come full circle back to him.

The cheetah purrs away like a regular house cat

After this, we tour the farm, which is currently home to 112 cheetah, many of which will be released into Pilanesberg from where we have come.  The centre also breeds wild dogs - there are currently over 80 here out of a total population of just 300 in all of South Africa.

Refuge is also offered to animals which cannot live a natural life in the wild - vultures injured on power lines, troublesome honey badgers, rescued cerval and caracal.

At 86, Ann van Dyk is still very much involved in the conservation work.  The whole centre - and the survival of the cheetah as a whole - are a testament to what one woman can achieve.

From the centre, after a hair-raising drive across Johannesburg's central highway, we arrived at the Apartheid Museum to relive a portion of this country's horrific recent past.

Apartheid Museum

At the outset, we are allocated a racial group - I am white, Amanda non-white - and we are forced to use separate entrances and amenities based on this arbitrary classification.  Although only in the context of a museum, this feels degrading and unjust - a fitting introduction to such a topic.

The museum charts the arrival of the first European settlers, the Great Trek, the Anglo-Boer War, the Union of South Africa, the rise of the National Party, the legislative creation of Apartheid, the protests, the detention without trial, the bannings, the overseas pressure, the release of Mandela, the dawning of democracy and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Parts of the story are harrowing - the footage of 'necklacing' where impimpis (informers) had a tyre filled with petrol placed over their head and set alight, the replica security police detention cells, the 115 nooses hanging from the ceiling representing those political convicts sentenced to death.

Yet the story is also one of hope.  For all of its problems - and they are legion - South Africa has achieved the unachievable.  And it is a story that, however hard, must be told.  Every child must learn of the hatred of the past so they can prevent it happening tomorrow.

The whole experience concludes in a sanctuary garden.  The sign reads:

"Take some time to walk in the garden.

Think about all that has gone before

and all that is yet to come.

Then walk away free."

From cheetah to race relations, education is transforming this wonderful country.

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?'"

Reflections on Nelson Mandela

Tomorrow I'm making a trip to the Civic Centre to sign the book of condolence in memory of Nelson Mandela.  To be honest, it feels a bit strange - leaving a message that few will read to commemorate a man I never met, from a country I've never set foot in.  And yet, I feel overwhelmingly compelled to.

My parents lived in South Africa in the early '80s at the height of apartheid, at a time when Mandela was regarded as a terrorist and had been in prison for nearly two decades - even the mention of his name was a criminal offence.  The stories of that time in South Africa, its culture and its people filled my childhood and gave me a great love for the country.

However, I don't think that it is merely a fondness for South Africa that has made me feel so saddened by the passing of Tata Madiba.  Nor is it his standing as the leading global politician of the last decades.  It's more than that: the work of Nelson Mandela, for me, represented a glimpse of something greater.

The story of his fight against the apartheid regime and his incredible grace and forgiveness following his release from prison have been well reported in recent days, but something that hasn't had so much attention is his focus on restorative justice.

In 1995, President Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring perpetrators and victims of abuse during the apartheid struggle face-to-face, establish the full truth of the story and establish reconciliation.  In appearing before the Commission chaired by Archbishop Tutu, perpetrators were granted amnesty in return for full disclosure of their crimes.  (See, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujOL8FS2wv4.)

There have been many criticisms of the TRC from people who would rather have seen retributive justice done, however watching any footage from the Commission quickly shows how powerful and moving an act this was.  Both truth and reconciliation were seen as the necessary ingredients of justice; as the pathway to moving forward.  It makes me ponder how different post-war Europe might have been had we had a truth and reconciliation commission instead of the Nuremberg Trials.

This is why Nelson Mandela was so important to me - truth and reconciliation.  Listening Mandela forgive those who persecuted him, watching old enemies hug as friends, seeing the victim of a heinous crime look its perpetrator in the eye and say, quite genuinely, "I forgive you" seems to me to be a glimpse into the Kingdom of God.

Books of condolence, memorial concerts and televised tributes have their place, but perhaps the best way to remember this remarkable man would be to create more glimpses of the Kingdom - to seek truth and reconciliation, to strive for freedom and equality, and to work to realise his dream of "work, bread, water and salt for all".

"If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are roads that read to that goal.  Two of these roads could be named goodness and forgiveness."  - Madiba.

Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika.