Two promising young men ruined by unchecked early power

THE contrast between the two scenes was stark. One was an outpouring of love and empathy, and the other was of a somewhat violent and dark nature.

The first scene was one we have become accustomed to seeing: the mass prayers and flower deliveries outside the Pretoria hospital where Nelson Mandela is being treated. For weeks now, people have travelled from afar to show their adoration for the man to whom everybody on earth feels a special connection.

The other scene was a more dramatic and infinitely more disturbing one.

It was of officials arriving at Mvezo chief Mandla Mandela’s home with members of Madiba’s family and breaking down its gates. Their mission: to reclaim the remains of three of Nelson Mandela’s children, which Mandla had unilaterally exhumed from their Qunu graves and reburied in his own back yard. Officials dug deep into the evening and then a phalanx of black hearses drove off in the dark.

This scene was the culmination of an ugly and distasteful family war that has overshadowed the good wishes and celebration of Madiba’s extraordinary life. The world has looked on and wondered whether this is a foretaste of more vicious conflicts to come when the old man has answered the Maker’s summons.

At the centre of this conflict is Mandla Mandela, who in some ways is a lighter version of Julius Malema. The two men are similar in that they have natural leadership qualities that they themselves have worked hard to undermine. They also have both benefited from, and abused, the blessings and protection they received from their elders.

In the case of Malema, the blessing and protection was the product of a pact made in hell. His sponsor, Jacob Zuma, afforded him acres of political space to do as he wished, so long as he was a bulwark against Zuma’s political foes. As long as Malema (among others) was useful in keeping Zuma out of jail, he could bully and insult whomever. Although most targets were external critics of Zuma’s corruptible ways, many senior ANC leaders fell victim to Malema’s bare-knuckle political enforcement. Zuma would just look the other way, or praise the young man for his leadership potential.

Mandla’s rise was the result of his grandfather’s good intentions. In him Mandela saw himself — someone who would not only take the family name forward, but also make a positive contribution to the country he had given his life for.

Mandela did everything he could to ensure that the young man became a capable and exemplary leader. He made sure Mandla got a good education, secured him the chieftainship, got him respectable mentors and encouraged him to take an interest in politics.

Then Mandela made the fatal mistake of not reining in the youngster when his head got too big. Constantly hearing that he was “Madiba’s favourite grandchild” and the “heir to the Mandela mantle” led to Mandla’s head fattening so much that his royal headgear needed regular enlargements. In Mvezo, he struck fear into the hearts of his subjects. This was not just any chief. He was a Mandela, anointed by the great man himself.

In the family he was a law unto himself. Older relatives, including greying ones, could tell him nothing. Even when he was embracing Zumaesque tendencies by proposing marriage to every young lass who dared flash a smile at him, nobody could advise him on proper procedures to be followed.

In the ANC, the name he carried made him untouchable. He refused to avail himself of guidance from political seniors in the party.

The combination of immaturity and power-drunkenness made the two young men push things just a little too far.

For Malema, the guillotine started coming down when it appeared he had become so powerful that even Zuma was nothing to him.

For Mandla, it was his belief that he could disregard everyone’s opinions and simply dig up his relatives’ graves at a whim. With Mandela no longer alert, family members — who are no cherubs either — finally found the courage to take him on. He now finds himself under siege as others — in the community and in the political space — find their voice and take on the bully they once feared. Even his right to the chieftainship is now being questioned.

The careers of these two young men are by no means over.

But they will never reach the levels they could have reached, or make as much of a positive contribution as they were capable of.

All because power went to their heads way too quickly.

PS: While on the issue of Mandla Mandela, I am compelled to touch on a seemingly unrelated but definitely related subject: the annual massacre of young men in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo during those archaic initiation bush camps.

If this chopping-of-the-foreskin-passage-to-manhood thing really works, surely it should have carved Mandla Mandela into a more solid man and rounded leader?