We need Madiba now more than ever

THIS week marks the centenary of perhaps one of the world’s greatest statesmen, certainly Africa’s and undoubtedly South Africa’s. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in what was then the Transkei.

He was, as his middle name suggests, a troublemaker. He had an eye for the ladies, a love for boxing and a taste for the good things in life. He was also a man of the people.

He overcame the often impossible circumstances that were the norm for any South African not deemed white to become a lawyer and to fight – legally and otherwise – for his people’s freedom. He would give up 27 years of his life spent behind bars, literally exiled in the middle of the ocean.

When he was released he did not seek vengeance on those who had robbed him of the best part of his natural life. He did not retire gracefully to spend what time he had left reconnecting with his wife and his extended family – he threw himself into his project of leading this country into a new dawn, reconciling that which had been historically unreconcilable to the amazement and acclaim of the entire world.

Today his legacy is under increasing scrutiny – as it should be – by those who wonder if Mandela hadn’t actually betrayed the generations that come after, especially black South Africans, in his willingness to forgive his jailers and forge a new nation – paying too high a price in the process.

The truth is that it was Mandela’s magnanimity then that allows those debates to be held now – and they should be held.

We need honest engagement, but all too often this is becoming subsumed by political entrepreneurs who substitute slogans for actual policies in their descent to crass populism and personal aggrandisement.

Now, more than ever, we need to find the Mandela in ourselves, not the icon of popular imagination, as we look to craft the next chapter in this country’s turbulent history.

Mandela and his comrades bequeathed us a legacy, they laid the foundation. How we take it from here is on us, no one else – all we owe him is our enduring thanks.