Nelson Mandela’s legacy of human rights, liberation struggle and reconciliation speaks for itself in the work that he did, the culture he established, in the frameworks and institutions built up, in the continuing and succeeding efforts to change lives of South Africans and children all over the world.
Today South Africa and the world marks the second anniversary of the passing away of Madiba through various commemorative events, including one in Qunu, his birth and resting place.
This is an opportune time to reflect on what Mandela stood for and the values he represented.
Will this commemoration fade into another day of meaningless festivities or will South Africans refuse to reduce his legacy to a “one day in a year” remembrance?
Will we cherish the day meaningfully so that future generations are inspired to imbibe and reflect Madiba’s values for nationhood?
With all that is happening in the world at present, what Mandela meant when he said it takes courage to wage peace it is clearer than ever.
The benefits of restorative justice, reconciliation, solidarity, liberation, social cohesion, human rights and peace in terms of how people and countries become free to choose their socio-economic directions cannot be disputed.
The benefits of peaceful multi-partyism which he extolled even when it was not popular to do so and the clear intersection of liberation, human rights and reconciliation continue to provide inspiration.
As part of the process of freeing the African voice and transforming the heritage landscape to include distinguished African icons in different areas, Mandela will long stand as a first among those who have rendered distinguished service to Africa in times of war and in times of peace.
Mandela’s legacy therefore needs no defence from anyone. And no falsifications by any peacetime figure or uninformed fascist will erase it.
The present template of falsifying history and denying the heroic role of key Africans so that it can be said that Africa has never seen greatness, is not great, and is not capable of greatness is an established template.
It is also a destructive, misguided template. Unfortunately it has been been used by some children of the African soil. For example, attempts were made by Africans to besmirch the likes of Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah and many others.
Now we are advised that a so-called “commander in chief” was recently hosted by some in a country that was once a very important ally of the very government Mandela fought against and defeated in war and in peace.
On foreign soil this “commander in chief” allegedly indicated that Mandela and his generation had sold out the revolution and implied that South Africans are now worse off because of the work Mandela and his compatriots did and did not do.
These slurs were made in a very interesting context and in a very interesting geographic location – and were possibly a means of creating sensation and attracting media attention, without which this visit by this “commander in chief” might just have gone unnoticed.
Today, for the sake of record we say the following: the much-celebrated Congress of the People in 1955, the All Africa Conference and every other major gathering of the progressive forces before and after these ones, wanted a session similar to Codesa, where all South African groups would sit together and design a future in which access to political power would be determined through a common ballot and that political power would be used to determine the national policy direction in all sectors.
Mandela and his generation, supported by the four pillars of the struggle and in the context of myriad objective and subjective factors, facilitated the possibility of such a protracted session taking place. In doing so they saved the nation from spiraling down into the kind of ugly war we have seen break out elsewhere on our continent.
Instead, they not only ended apartheid jingoism but instituted a constitutional dispensation that makes possible a healing of the divisions of the past, a transformation and rebuilding of the economy, and the construction of a society in conditions of peace through equity and redress.
They developed programmes like “Ready to govern”, the Reconstruction and Development Programme, Growth Employment and Redistribution, Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa, and the National Development Plan, among others. Through their efforts southern Africa has also ceased to be a ground for proxy wars. Frontline states are seeing peace and slowly but surely the possibility of post-independence reconstruction is beginning to bear visible fruits for all citizens.
Revolutions and struggles are not textbook matters, nor catechism or cooking recipes. And to claim that everything that has happened to date has been a lost cause merely because chapter X and verse Y may not yet have been achieved, overlooks the immensity of what has been achieved and betrays the personal price paid by the Mandela generation.
The fact is that revolutions are messy organic affairs, involving objective and subjective factors, with contradictions playing out as the balance of forces shift.
Mandela and his generation defined and achieved the mission of their generation – to rid South Africa of apartheid and its lethal jingoism, to establish a united, non-racial democracy on South African soil with a democratic constitution, to set a people on a path to healing the divisions of the past and to lay the foundations for a prosperous society to be achieved through the use of equity and redress.
The 1994 breakthrough also made it possible for South Africans to determine their future. It created space for all kinds of people to form all kinds of parties.
These were for the first time, free to take any of the legacy documents developed by Mandela and his comrades, interpret them as they liked, or work from any other documents, and request from the electorate, once every five years, a mandate on which direction to take South Africa.
The Mandela leadership was not seduced into cheap posturing. They did not don uniforms or engage in sabre-rattling war talk. They knew, as most of us know only too well, that poor people are the immediate losers in any protracted war, and that the first opportunity for peace needs to be grabbed and put to maximum use.
It is only fascists, war-mongers and arms dealers who might triumph in war, albeit in the short-term.
The reality is that war and militarism are not cool or sexy. They are hostile to democracy, to human rights, to reconciliation and liberation.
Even those commanders who fought the just war will unpack in very clear terms the elementary principle that war in their time was a last resort tactic to continue the political struggle when all other doors had been closed, when there remained only two choices – submit or fight.
We worry when the iconography of militarism is elevated in the present global environment and in general. And we do not know which war the “commander in chief” who vilified Mandela’s memory actually fought in.
We also do not know which military accorded him his militaristic decorations.
But the fact is the iconography of militarism and war is not attractive to us as a people and is certainly not part of the traditions of democrats.
Further, for us to have uniformed “commanders in chief” in parliament during peace time is a serious oxymoron. If ours was not a world in which states were destabilised through the glorification and use of war, these would be laughable, comical characters, but they are not.
So this is a clarion call to South Africans and to progressive people all over to promote and uphold human rights, to stand in solidarity with suffering people and the values of liberation and reconciliation that are part of the extensive legacy of Mandela and his generation.
The onslaught against Mandela and his legacy of peace demands that we continue at an accelerated pace to populate the heritage space domestically and globally with Africans and people of the global South.
We are not short of people of all colours who have contributed to a better South Africa and a better world in different areas starting with social cohesion.
The greatest, most sustainable chance all people have of achieving social transformation and a better life for all in conditions of peace, is to pull closer together, not to be wrenched apart.
All of us must work together to banish the spectre of militarism in southern Africa. All war, proxy or not, must never again have a space in our region. And those who make direct or indirect calls to arms must be isolated and exposed.
No arms manufacturers must profit from the misery of Africans again. Guns must be silenced throughout the African continent. The heritage of liberation, human rights, reconciliation and inclusive socio-economic transformation must light our way forward. It is necessary. It is possible. Now is the time.
Advocate Sonwabile Mancotywa is the CEO of the National Heritage Council
Safeguard Madiba’s priceless legacy of peace
Today South Africa and the world marks the second anniversary of the passing away of Madiba through various commemorative events, including one in Qunu, his birth and resting place.
This is an opportune time to reflect on what Mandela stood for and the values he represented.
Will this commemoration fade into another day of meaningless festivities or will South Africans refuse to reduce his legacy to a “one day in a year” remembrance?
Will we cherish the day meaningfully so that future generations are inspired to imbibe and reflect Madiba’s values for nationhood?
With all that is happening in the world at present, what Mandela meant when he said it takes courage to wage peace it is clearer than ever.
The benefits of restorative justice, reconciliation, solidarity, liberation, social cohesion, human rights and peace in terms of how people and countries become free to choose their socio-economic directions cannot be disputed.
The benefits of peaceful multi-partyism which he extolled even when it was not popular to do so and the clear intersection of liberation, human rights and reconciliation continue to provide inspiration.
As part of the process of freeing the African voice and transforming the heritage landscape to include distinguished African icons in different areas, Mandela will long stand as a first among those who have rendered distinguished service to Africa in times of war and in times of peace.
Mandela’s legacy therefore needs no defence from anyone. And no falsifications by any peacetime figure or uninformed fascist will erase it.
The present template of falsifying history and denying the heroic role of key Africans so that it can be said that Africa has never seen greatness, is not great, and is not capable of greatness is an established template.
It is also a destructive, misguided template. Unfortunately it has been been used by some children of the African soil. For example, attempts were made by Africans to besmirch the likes of Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah and many others.
Now we are advised that a so-called “commander in chief” was recently hosted by some in a country that was once a very important ally of the very government Mandela fought against and defeated in war and in peace.
On foreign soil this “commander in chief” allegedly indicated that Mandela and his generation had sold out the revolution and implied that South Africans are now worse off because of the work Mandela and his compatriots did and did not do.
These slurs were made in a very interesting context and in a very interesting geographic location – and were possibly a means of creating sensation and attracting media attention, without which this visit by this “commander in chief” might just have gone unnoticed.
Today, for the sake of record we say the following: the much-celebrated Congress of the People in 1955, the All Africa Conference and every other major gathering of the progressive forces before and after these ones, wanted a session similar to Codesa, where all South African groups would sit together and design a future in which access to political power would be determined through a common ballot and that political power would be used to determine the national policy direction in all sectors.
Mandela and his generation, supported by the four pillars of the struggle and in the context of myriad objective and subjective factors, facilitated the possibility of such a protracted session taking place. In doing so they saved the nation from spiraling down into the kind of ugly war we have seen break out elsewhere on our continent.
Instead, they not only ended apartheid jingoism but instituted a constitutional dispensation that makes possible a healing of the divisions of the past, a transformation and rebuilding of the economy, and the construction of a society in conditions of peace through equity and redress.
They developed programmes like “Ready to govern”, the Reconstruction and Development Programme, Growth Employment and Redistribution, Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa, and the National Development Plan, among others. Through their efforts southern Africa has also ceased to be a ground for proxy wars. Frontline states are seeing peace and slowly but surely the possibility of post-independence reconstruction is beginning to bear visible fruits for all citizens.
Revolutions and struggles are not textbook matters, nor catechism or cooking recipes. And to claim that everything that has happened to date has been a lost cause merely because chapter X and verse Y may not yet have been achieved, overlooks the immensity of what has been achieved and betrays the personal price paid by the Mandela generation.
The fact is that revolutions are messy organic affairs, involving objective and subjective factors, with contradictions playing out as the balance of forces shift.
Mandela and his generation defined and achieved the mission of their generation – to rid South Africa of apartheid and its lethal jingoism, to establish a united, non-racial democracy on South African soil with a democratic constitution, to set a people on a path to healing the divisions of the past and to lay the foundations for a prosperous society to be achieved through the use of equity and redress.
The 1994 breakthrough also made it possible for South Africans to determine their future. It created space for all kinds of people to form all kinds of parties.
These were for the first time, free to take any of the legacy documents developed by Mandela and his comrades, interpret them as they liked, or work from any other documents, and request from the electorate, once every five years, a mandate on which direction to take South Africa.
The Mandela leadership was not seduced into cheap posturing. They did not don uniforms or engage in sabre-rattling war talk. They knew, as most of us know only too well, that poor people are the immediate losers in any protracted war, and that the first opportunity for peace needs to be grabbed and put to maximum use.
It is only fascists, war-mongers and arms dealers who might triumph in war, albeit in the short-term.
The reality is that war and militarism are not cool or sexy. They are hostile to democracy, to human rights, to reconciliation and liberation.
Even those commanders who fought the just war will unpack in very clear terms the elementary principle that war in their time was a last resort tactic to continue the political struggle when all other doors had been closed, when there remained only two choices – submit or fight.
We worry when the iconography of militarism is elevated in the present global environment and in general. And we do not know which war the “commander in chief” who vilified Mandela’s memory actually fought in.
We also do not know which military accorded him his militaristic decorations.
But the fact is the iconography of militarism and war is not attractive to us as a people and is certainly not part of the traditions of democrats.
Further, for us to have uniformed “commanders in chief” in parliament during peace time is a serious oxymoron. If ours was not a world in which states were destabilised through the glorification and use of war, these would be laughable, comical characters, but they are not.
So this is a clarion call to South Africans and to progressive people all over to promote and uphold human rights, to stand in solidarity with suffering people and the values of liberation and reconciliation that are part of the extensive legacy of Mandela and his generation.
The onslaught against Mandela and his legacy of peace demands that we continue at an accelerated pace to populate the heritage space domestically and globally with Africans and people of the global South.
We are not short of people of all colours who have contributed to a better South Africa and a better world in different areas starting with social cohesion.
The greatest, most sustainable chance all people have of achieving social transformation and a better life for all in conditions of peace, is to pull closer together, not to be wrenched apart.
All of us must work together to banish the spectre of militarism in southern Africa. All war, proxy or not, must never again have a space in our region. And those who make direct or indirect calls to arms must be isolated and exposed.
No arms manufacturers must profit from the misery of Africans again. Guns must be silenced throughout the African continent. The heritage of liberation, human rights, reconciliation and inclusive socio-economic transformation must light our way forward. It is necessary. It is possible. Now is the time.
Advocate Sonwabile Mancotywa is the CEO of the National Heritage Council
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