Pull together – we owe it to Madiba

The presence of world leaders of the stature of Barack Obama in South Africa this week – to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela – is a timely reminder for the country he did so much for that we, collectively, managed to pull off a miracle unsurpassed in modern times.

That statement is not hype. It is a realistic assessment of the country’s history. And it is a pity that so many of us have either forgotten that, or dismiss it because they are obsessed with the perceived hurts of the present.

Madiba helped us, as a country, step away from the precipice of civil war. Had there not been a negotiated path to majority rule and the end of apartheid, rivers of blood would have flowed in this country.

That is something the armchair warriors and the Gucci revolutionaries – never mind the “back to the past” reactionaries – ignore because it does not suit their narrative of either race triumphalism or race resistance … both of which are recipes for the destruction of a country.

Did Mandela and those in the struggle have to make compromises to secure that peace? Indeed they did. But, because of that, can Mandela be labelled as a sellout who betrayed his people? No, he cannot.

Perhaps his policy of reconciliation and the Rainbow Nation illusion which came with it were responsible for postponing the action we needed to take on the issues of land and poverty, as well as the dignity of African people.

Yet, without doubt, he cannot be blamed for the failure of those who came after him to genuinely bring about a “better life for all”.

We owe it to Mandela’s memory to work together to, once again, pull the beloved country back from the brink.