Nine years ago today, South Africa bid farewell to its first democratic president, Nelson Mandela, who died at the age of 95.
Mandela is fondly remembered for successfully leading the resistance against South Africa’s policy of apartheid.
The country commemorates the life of Madiba annually, but this year, instead of commemorations, some South Africans raised serious concerns about the current state of affairs in the country.
Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie said: “We as the Patriotic Alliance will not commemorate this day. We are burying our children daily to gun violence, we really don’t have the time to commemorate this day.”
His deputy Kenny Kunene echoed his sentiments, saying: “We have not planned anything, but that does not take away that we respect Mandela, including all who died in the fight for a democratic South Africa. We are a growing party that works on the ground, and if we do celebrate, it should be for the growth of our people.”
COPE councillor and speaker of council in the City of Johannesburg, Colleen Makhubele, said: “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. There was a time these heavy words gave us goosebumps and tears in our eyes.
“South Africa has irrevocably changed. The ‘new dawn’ finally saw its orange sunset delivered by several buffaloes worth $580 000 [about R10-million]. I believe with the Phala Phala gate, we have definitely crossed the Rubicon. It’s almost as if Nelson Mandela left without a will.
“We have inherited from the dysfunctional ANC factions a president prepared to lead South Africans on a road to abdication of values, morals, ethics to lawlessness and lack of accountability.”
“Backed by the minority and their financial, judicial and media influence, driven by the ‘president beyond reproach and above the law’, the country has rapidly plunged into factional strife, chaos and descending into a global skunk of what is termed ‘typical African state’, a ‘a failed state’ indeed, there can be no turning back.
“The minority interest are at stake, the burning country can wait in the queue, the constitution will be massaged to suit the day and the man.
“The nation is also caught between the ANC factional crisis and self-interests. The ANC and its cadres are acutely aware of the fast plummeting prospects of 2024, but it lacks the internal cohesion to make fundamental adjustments and has lost completely the capacity to change course. The new dawn was indeed the last benediction.”
Mpho Phalatse, the mayor of Johannesburg, said: “Former president Nelson Mandela will forever remain an icon and a symbol of the fight against apartheid and the journey towards a democratic and free South Africa.
“Therefore, where we find ourselves as a country, it gives us more reason to continue commemorating his life and legacy, lest we forget how far we have come, and how far we still need to go.
“Certainly, the country we live in today is not the kind of country that Madiba [and others] fought for, but it is wrong to place the problems we face as a country at his feet alone. We must interrogate the respective legacies that leaders [mayors, premiers and presidents] have made, not just Madiba’s.
“As leaders, and including myself, we must ask what contribution we are making and have made to bettering the country and the lives of all who live in it. Are the leaders we elect really interested in service or just the power that elected office affords them? We must therefore always look at electing leaders interested in service to the communities.
“My job as a leader is not to squander the responsibilities that I have been afforded. At the end of my term, I must be able to say that the multi-party government did its utmost to repair and rebuild Joburg.
“I don’t believe Mandela ever presented himself as a perfect leader, but he definitely always did what he could in the interest of those he served.”
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