A misreading of Mandela’s dream for his people

I wish your correspondent Bulumko Nelana, “The white economic class undermines the Madiba legacy that protects it” (February 3), had heeded his father’s advice and done a lot of reading.

Had he read broadly enough (and with intelligence), he would have understood that Mandela and the ANC did not negotiate the 1994 political settlement. At the most they participated in negotiations that ended up with the settlement.

The ANC was approached by the National Party (NP) to participate in such negotiations. The question to ask is why the Nats decided to approach the ANC only in 1984 (after 72 years of ANC existence).

There were many occasions when it would have been logical for the colonialists to approach African people to decide a shared future. The ANC had many deputations, including to the UK, to no avail. Robert Sobukwe’s anti-pass campaign of 1960 had as its objective paralysing industry and forcing the regime to come to the table. Donald Woods approached justice minister Jimmy Kruger in the ’70s to suggest the Nats hold talks with black people.

There must have been huge pressure on the NP for it to decide to approach the ANC for talks after resisting for such a long time. Or does Mr Nelana believe that Mandela in jail had enough leverage to compel the

Nats to negotiate? Which means the gentleman has not read Niel Barnard’s book. Strange that he should assert: “… as he came to the conclusion that too much of the blood of the black majority had been spilled”. According to Anthea Jeffery (People’s War), most of the blood spilt by the ANC was in the mid to late ’80s.

No liberation movement engages in a struggle so that at the end they should engage in vengeance. Liberation is about the creation of an atmosphere in which the liberated can prosper. Negotiations are the logical end point of a conflict.

World War 2 ended in negotiation in which those who were the victims of abuse were given land to reorganise their lives. And perpetrators were hauled to court (the Nuremberg trials) in the interest of justice. To date, they still get prosecuted if found. All this talk of reconciliation as rocket science is a red herring. The call for justice in SA by African people is perceived as “vengeance”, and Mr Nelana punts this myth.

The problem is that he perceives economic prosperity as the domain of white people. Accordingly, Africans can only enter that space by the will of white people. Mr Nelana cannot envisage Africans developing economic prosperity for themselves even if they are running the affairs of a country. His “Madiba’s dream” is something that cannot happen unless whites do something about it. A Freudian slip? Madiba’s dream is that whites do things for Africans?

Anyway, 25 years have elapsed and there is nothing that shows the ANC to be the wonderful thing it is punted to be.

Dr Kenosi Mosalakae, Houghton

Public office a criminal refuge

It is clear that, as a nation, we have lost our way at all levels of society. The current Bosasa saga only serves to highlight the levels of corruption, greed and wanton disregard of public office and our hardearned taxpayer rands.

The seemingly limitless and unprosecuted access to public funds is alarming, and our civil servants, who we have entrusted to run our country’s affairs, seem to have received a memo authorising this carte blanche privilege, with no end in sight. Toiling daily and honestly to make a living in SA seems to be lost on persons seeking public office, once a place of dignity with only those of the highest levels of repute having access to it.

The historical and current trend gives the impression that public office in SA is a place for educated criminals, specialising in mismanagement and nepotism.

Who will sway the pendulum aright or begin the good work of restoring the moral compass?

Saif Soofie, Durban

Coughing, spluttering at Transnet

Nono Zulu’s comments, “Transnet works hard to get ore out — and keep air clean” (Letters, February 3), regarding air pollution, created hollow laughter here in Port Elizabeth!

We used to have to put up with the iron ore dust, then many years ago that was replaced by manganese ore dust, which has not improved the quality of the air, especially when the southeaster blows.

Water is supposed to be sprinkled to dampen the dust, but that fails to happen in any effective way.

Transnet periodically announces that it will move the ore-loading berth to Coega harbour but that is obviously only a pipe dream. The same promises have been made regarding the tank farm, which is polluting the ground on which it stands.

I very much doubt you will find any politicians who choose to live near the ore berth, either in Port Elizabeth or Saldanha Bay!

John Walker, Port Elizabeth

Honour Hugh Lewin

Hugh Lewin, who is undoubtedly a famous South African, has recently died and all of those of us who knew him through the years are shocked and dismayed that there has been no obituary in the Sunday Times.

He was a man of conscience who joined the resistance in the 1960s; was imprisoned in Pretoria Central for seven years; was exiled until the change of government in the ’90s and wrote awardwinning books like Bandiet and Stones against the Mirror, but not a word in the Sunday Times. Badly done!

Jill Traill, Highlands North

● A obituary was published on Times Select

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