A man for all people
Outpouring of grief and gratitude for a man who pushed his agenda of reconciliation among South Africans from all walks of life
LARGER THAN LIFE: Former president Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday night, is captured here during a birthday celebration in Chatsworth during the late ’90s. See Pages 3 and 4 for tributes to and recollections of the Nobel peace prize winner, who is being mourned internationally
STRUGGLE activist Sonny Venkatrathnam cannot wait for his Robben Island “bible” signed by Nelson Mandela to come home.
Venkatrathnam, who was imprisoned on Robben Island from 1972 to 1978, owns a volume of Shakespeare’s works that contains the signatures of 32 Robben Islanders, including that of former president Nelson Mandela. The book is currently on tour in Washington.
Venkatrathnam asked his fellow prisoners to sign their names and the date alongside their favourite passage from Shakespeare in the book, which they all shared.
Mandela’s signature lies next to a quote from the play Julius Caesar: “Cowards die many times before their deaths: The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear, Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.”
“Those are the lines that he chose and autographed in the book. Are they not strangely fitting?” said Venkatrathnam.
Amshaveni Naidu, the sister of anti-apartheid struggle icon Lenny Naidu, said Mandela’s death had prompted reflection on the way his ideas had influenced her brother.
Lenny was killed in 1986 at the age of 24 by apartheid security police in an ambush when he was returning from an ANC mission in Angola.
Speaking on behalf of the Naidu family, she said: “We salute Nelson Mandela, the father of the nation, the one who stood for the five human values in our highest form of existence.”
Anglican Bishop of the diocese of Natal Rubin Phillip said he felt “absolutely devastated” when he heard of Mandela’s death. “I just felt tears running down my cheeks.”
But his favourite memory of Madiba is a funny one. “Soon after Mandela stepped down as president of the country, he invited about five of us bishops to meet with him at the Durban residence. He wanted to talk about the role of the church in transformation. When we gathered, he turned to his security people and said: ‘I think you should leave because if I can’t be safe with five bish- ops, I’ll never be safe at all.’ What struck me is just the man’s sheer humility.”
Phillip said South Africans were “in for a rough ride” if they failed to emulate Mandela’s ethos of reconciliation and transformation. “What we need to realise is that the wealth of this country is not is its diamonds or its gold, it is actually in its human beings.”
The KwaZulu-Natal human settlements and public works MEC, Ravi Pillay, was first inspired by Mandela as a youngster, when he read banned material about him.
He said every step that Mandela took since then towards creating a democratic country has left him in awe of the man.
“We can each pay no finer tribute to Tata Madiba than to work uncompromisingly for the betterment of our country and the lives of our people.”
Brother of Apartheid veteran, Fatima Meer, Dr Farouk Meer said Mandela was an individual that displayed "the best a human being could be".
He said the relationship Madiba shared with his sister Fatima could not be summed up, but added that the fact that Mandela took Winnie Madikizela Mandela to Fatima's home before making her his second wife to seek Fatima’s approval, spoke volumes about their connection.
In 2003, Mandela opened the Chatsworth Youth Centre at a former nightclub called Throb, in which 13 youngsters died during a stampede. The centre’s Clive Pillay said Mandela’s response to the tragedy was to create a place where the youth of the area could grow into future leaders.
“We are very proud that we have a part of his legacy, a piece of him, in Chatsworth. Our long-term hope now that he is gone is that the youth use this place as a way to emulate some of what he believed in and create a better country.”
Struggle stalwart Mewa Ramgobin said he was having “a tough time dealing” with Mandela’s death.
“Today, he is a gift to the South African people and the world in general in terms of forbearance, forgiveness, understanding and compassion. These are values that are lasting. It is a constant reminder that our country gave rise to concepts of this nature to the extent that the world today celebrates the life of an individual.”
Ghaleb Cachalia said his family’s relationship with Mandela dated back to the 1940s when Yusuf Cachalia, secretary of the South African Indian Congress, and Mandela first encountered each other as political bedfellows.
“The relationship — pre-Rivonia, during incarceration and postrelease — was predicated on intense political and family bonds that evinced shared values and a commitment to fighting injustice.”
South African Hindu Maha Sabha president Ashwin Trikamjee met Mandela in 1991 at a function for the then National Soccer League, which Trikamjee chaired.
He recalled fondly a joke made by Madiba at the function: “He said: ‘Who doesn’t know Ashwin? Ashwin is bigger than Mandela because he is head of football.’ ”