Mixed feelings over Mandela’s legacy
South Africa prepares to celebrate icon’s 100th birth anniversary
Ablack and white photo of Nelson Mandela in boxing attire greets visitors to the gym where the liberation hero trained in the 1950s before delivering the knockout blow to apartheid decades later.
“He used to train here, I feel strong ... Physically and mentally I get some strength,” said gym-goer Kgotso Phali, 18.
The red and white walls of the gym, located in South Africa’s Soweto township, smell of fresh paint.
The Donaldson Orlando Community Centre (DOCC) has been restored to its former glory to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mandela’s birth.
Mandela, South Africa’s first black president known locally by his clan name “Madiba”, died in 2013.
“People had to carry passes — all these things are gone now. We are free,” thanks to him, said Andy Zameko, who said he was proud to work out in the same gym as Mandela.
Mandela would visit the gym several times a week to train and forget the ordeal that was the fight against the white supremacist regime. “The walls of ... the DOCC are drenched with sweet memories that will delight me for years,” Mandela wrote to his daughter Zindzi from his cell on Robben Island where he was imprisoned for 18 years.
A copy of the letter, dated December 9, 1979, is displayed on a wall in the gym. Others recognise the achievement but are disappointed in the postapartheid reality.
‘Not living his dream’
“Madiba is so inspiring for me,” said hip-hop singer Thobane Mkhize who sported a striking bouffant haircut.
“But we are not living his dream,” said the 24-year-old musician.
“The parliament is like a (sitcom), it is no longer a parliament because politicians are busy with corruption. Instead of being united, we are busy looking at the colours of the skin,” he added.
Maxwell Huis, 44, a homeless father-of-two said the reality delivered by Mandela was starkly different to that which he had promised.
“He sold the black people to the whites. There should have been a civil war — it would have changed things,” he added as he foraged for wood to burn.