Lip service to Madiba’s legacy is not enough

ON SATURDAYafternoon, on the twisty roads and tortuous mountain climbs of southern France, on the 14th stage of the Tour de France cycle race, there was a significant achievement.

There had already been great moments for MTN Qhubeka, the first African trade team to compete in the Tour. For a couple of days Eritrean Daniel Teklehaimanot had worn the polka-dot jersey of the leader of the king of the mountains category – the first African to do so.

On Saturday, team member Steve Cummings won the 178km stage from Rodez to Mende. On the day he rode with a helmet which bore the slogan: Make every day a Mandela day. For a team which had perhaps not had major ambitions coming into the tour, Cummings and his teammates had embodied the dictum of can-do and must-do.

What a fitting tribute to a great man. AGAINST the aftermath of the 67 minutes for Mandela Day celebrations – and your esteemed newspaper’s involvement therein is commendable – I am apt to wonder what Madiba’s response would be to South Africans internalising his invaluable legacy of reconciliation, forgiveness and peace in our beloved country.

On his 79th birthday celebrations held at the then Culemborg Exhibition Centre in Cape Town, Madiba had invited children from the Red Cross Memorial Children’s Hospital to the celebrations, and he insisted on entertaining them. Such was his immense empathy for children. Children and those most vulnerable were of paramount importance to him. He committed a third of his salary to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.

The selflessness and reaching out to the most marginalised is an integral component of Tata Madiba’s legacy. Lip service is not enough. The time to live out Madiba’s example is now, and government must impose political commitment to honour the legacy of the iconic Nelson Mandela.