WHAT happened outside the private-owned Mediclinic in Arcadia, Pretoria, over the last months during which Nelson Mandela was hospitalised was neither a make-believe kaleidoscope of non-racialism nor a pretence by uncaring citizens pretending to be what they are not.
Rather, it was a monumental expression of solidarity, cooperation and interaction by a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, trans-class public, displaying love, unity, care, concern and pride.
In one sense it was a significant measure of a nation coming into its own.
The painful and distressing condition of Mandela has also revealed just how this prophet and visionary has redefined our history and heritage since his release in February 1990. His dream and legacy of a non-racial society where black and white will live and work together to rebuild this society will never disappear.
In fact, our public discussion and conversations on social cohesion and nation-building overlook and even suppress the best of what we have become in the last 20 years and what we continually try to be on a day-to-day basis. Instead, we continue to judge social cohesion on the basis of how often blacks and whites get together at stadiums rather than on internalising the values and principles that Mandela lived for.
We have to begin to recognise the complexity of the life-transforming process that happens when a man learns to love a former enemy as he loves himself. The difficult thing is that there are no performance indicators or instruments to measure the change in a selfish and greedy man who has changed into a caring soul.
To this day, no one has told us of how and when Mandela changed from a fire-spiting revolutionary renegade into a gentle prophetic pacifist who so deplored war that he became a champion of peace and harmonious co-existence.
The cynical notion that nothing has changed since Mandela came out of prison 23 years ago is simplistic – precisely because it focuses largely on how blacks, for instance, are doing measured against whites, especially in the economic and material dimension of life.
In fact, there is obsessive preoccupation to judge social cohesion by the number of previously disadvantaged individuals who live in the suburbs, have expensive cars in the garage and children who go to former Model C schools. The predictable outcome of this yardstick is that it, unavoidably, integrates black people into the establishment they fought against without transforming its essence.
Yet the revolutionary programme of social cohesion and nation-building requires that each individual look not at his or her neighbour but at the man and woman in the mirror. Each must change not only his behaviour and attitude to others, but transform himself into an agent of what we want to see happen for us to arrive at an egalitarian society.
What is urgently needed is not just for everyone to speak highly of or even pray for Mandela but for them to transform themselves into individuals who live and act out the values and principles Mandela preached. We must be examples of what we want to see happen in a caring and proudly South African society.
We have to learn to recognise the humanity of white people in a way that does not hesitate to say they, too, are agents of social cohesion.
Black people do not need a third eye to see that some whites are compassionate and do not see beggars at robots, for example, as sub-humans but fellow human beings who need food, clothing and shelter. And if any person, black or white, responds positively towards the needy, this is a little gesture that goes a long way towards social cohesion and nation-building. In fact, it is through a little gesture of kindness, warmth and love that the cement and brick that build a caring and proud society come alive.
How does it make you feel to do one little act that will decide whether a fellow citizen goes to be bed with food?
As South Africans, we tend to set our standards too high and forget that it is the little things that make the big ones.
I believe that through little acts of kindness and love, we can make Mandela proud and even do better than he did.
You too can reclaim and restore not only the legacy and heritage of Mandela but can celebrate it by being an agent of social cohesion and the society he desired to see in the new South Africa. Your part will always be bigger than Mandela’s.
Sandile Memela is a civil servant
Kindness celebrates and restores Mandela legacy
Rather, it was a monumental expression of solidarity, cooperation and interaction by a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, trans-class public, displaying love, unity, care, concern and pride.
In one sense it was a significant measure of a nation coming into its own.
The painful and distressing condition of Mandela has also revealed just how this prophet and visionary has redefined our history and heritage since his release in February 1990. His dream and legacy of a non-racial society where black and white will live and work together to rebuild this society will never disappear.
In fact, our public discussion and conversations on social cohesion and nation-building overlook and even suppress the best of what we have become in the last 20 years and what we continually try to be on a day-to-day basis. Instead, we continue to judge social cohesion on the basis of how often blacks and whites get together at stadiums rather than on internalising the values and principles that Mandela lived for.
We have to begin to recognise the complexity of the life-transforming process that happens when a man learns to love a former enemy as he loves himself. The difficult thing is that there are no performance indicators or instruments to measure the change in a selfish and greedy man who has changed into a caring soul.
To this day, no one has told us of how and when Mandela changed from a fire-spiting revolutionary renegade into a gentle prophetic pacifist who so deplored war that he became a champion of peace and harmonious co-existence.
The cynical notion that nothing has changed since Mandela came out of prison 23 years ago is simplistic – precisely because it focuses largely on how blacks, for instance, are doing measured against whites, especially in the economic and material dimension of life.
In fact, there is obsessive preoccupation to judge social cohesion by the number of previously disadvantaged individuals who live in the suburbs, have expensive cars in the garage and children who go to former Model C schools. The predictable outcome of this yardstick is that it, unavoidably, integrates black people into the establishment they fought against without transforming its essence.
Yet the revolutionary programme of social cohesion and nation-building requires that each individual look not at his or her neighbour but at the man and woman in the mirror. Each must change not only his behaviour and attitude to others, but transform himself into an agent of what we want to see happen for us to arrive at an egalitarian society.
What is urgently needed is not just for everyone to speak highly of or even pray for Mandela but for them to transform themselves into individuals who live and act out the values and principles Mandela preached. We must be examples of what we want to see happen in a caring and proudly South African society.
We have to learn to recognise the humanity of white people in a way that does not hesitate to say they, too, are agents of social cohesion.
Black people do not need a third eye to see that some whites are compassionate and do not see beggars at robots, for example, as sub-humans but fellow human beings who need food, clothing and shelter. And if any person, black or white, responds positively towards the needy, this is a little gesture that goes a long way towards social cohesion and nation-building. In fact, it is through a little gesture of kindness, warmth and love that the cement and brick that build a caring and proud society come alive.
How does it make you feel to do one little act that will decide whether a fellow citizen goes to be bed with food?
As South Africans, we tend to set our standards too high and forget that it is the little things that make the big ones.
I believe that through little acts of kindness and love, we can make Mandela proud and even do better than he did.
You too can reclaim and restore not only the legacy and heritage of Mandela but can celebrate it by being an agent of social cohesion and the society he desired to see in the new South Africa. Your part will always be bigger than Mandela’s.
Sandile Memela is a civil servant
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos