Learn from Madiba, listen to the people

In remembering the late Nelson Mandela, who would have turned 99 yesterday, ANC chairperson in Gauteng Paul Mashatile, pictured, said the biggest lesson current party leaders and members can learn from the first democratically elected president was to listen to the people who voted them into power.

“Sometimes, I don’t think we listen enough to our people. We have been accused of being arrogant because we are not taking the issues people are raising with us seriously. We want to say to all ANC leaders: let’s listen when the people speak.

“Yes, some of the issues people are raising are very difficult, but we need to listen and make sure that we work with them at all times by putting their interests first ... that’s what Nelson Mandela used to say to all of us, in that the ANC must always live among the people,” Mashatile told The Citizen on the sidelines of the International Nelson Mandela Day commemoration event in Orange Farm yesterday.

Mashatile and Gauteng premier David Makhura visited the area of Drieziek where they spent their 67 minutes of service by assisting in the building of a few houses in the area.

Mashatile called on every South African to emulate Mandela’s way of life, stressing that people’s interests have to be put first, rather than their own.

Earlier, Makhura, who is also deputy chairperson of the party in the province, echoed Mashatile’s sentiments, saying it was not only up to government to improve people’s lives – everyone had an important role to play.

“If everything has to be done by the government while you just wait for the government, you are handing over too much power to government. A government with too much power is dangerous.”