Carol’s Column

Nisson Mandra

A few years back, I found myself sitting on a plane flying across China. Beside me sat a distinguished looking man. He was, he informed me, an engineer who worked on large dam projects. Upon hearing I came from South Africa, he looked at me and said intensely. "Do you know Mandra?"

Mandra?

"Yes, Nisson Mandra?"

"Nisson Mandra? Ah, Mandela," I replied.

"Yes, yes," he smiled delightedly.

"Yes," I said. "I had lunch with Nelson Mandela a few weeks ago."

He was, of course, much impressed. Nearly as impressed as I had been at the time.

It happened this way.

It is a tradition that the editor of The Star regularly invites distinguished guests for lunch at the newspaper, to meet with a few senior editors. Shortly after Mandela had been released from gaol, he was invited by the editor of the time, Richard Steyn, for lunch and I was lucky to be included in the guest list. We were 16 in total. When the tall, thin figure of Madiba entered the room, there was a hush. With a disarming charm, he shook hands, saying something personal to each person. Referring to a column I'd written, he said: "Ah, Carol, you made me smile when I was in prison." Such thoughtfulness, such kindness. Who was I, a nothing in the scheme of things, and Madiba made me feel like somebody special. For me, the lunch was remarkable in that Madiba, who had been incarcerated for so long, spoke with knowledge and eloquence yet with such humility and lack of bitterness. A short while after that, I visited his home in Soweto with Peter Magubane to interview Winnie Mandela. Madiba opened the door wearing a paisley dressing gown looking like everyone's grandfather. He chatted with us warmly until Winnie was ready for the interview, apologising for his dress, or lack of, but mentioning he'd felt unusually tired that day, hence an early night. He had, in fact, just flown home from a Commonwealth leaders conference. I told the Chinese engineer about my 'lunch' with Madiba and he spent the entire two hours of the flight expressing his great admiration for Nissan Mandra. "For me he is God," I remember he said. This then, is the man born in a small Transkei village in 1918 of Xhosa royalty who, unlike most of his peers, went to primary and high school and qualified as a lawyer, working in Johannesburg. All his life, Nelson Mandela fought injustice, fought for the rights of his people. This is the man, who, when the Nationalist government of South Africa was at its most powerful and most restrictive, promoting the racial superiority of whites, promulgating evil laws such as the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act and the Immorality Act, became an activist in the African National Congress (ANC). Under apartheid, blacks were denied education, jobs, the right to live where they chose - over three million people were forcibly removed from their ancient tribal homelands. There were pass laws and the Separate Amenities Act . . . the list was endless.

In 1949, the ANC advocated open, but peaceful resistance in the form of strikes, acts of public disobedience and protest marches and in 1952, Mandela led a defiance campaign against racist laws. In 1960, the ANC, then a pacifist organisation, attempted to convince the government that the political aspirations of blacks could be met peacefully. The government denied their request for an all-parties political convention.

The rest is history. On March 21 1960, in response to a Pan African (PAC) call, peaceful, unarmed demonstrators surrounded the police station at Sharpeville. The police opened fire killing 69 people, wounding 160. The ANC, PAC and South African Communist Party were banned and the leaders went underground with Mandela as underground leader of the ANC.

On July 1963, Mandela with seven colleagues was arrested in Rivonia and charged with treason and sabotage and received a life sentence, 27 years which he served on Robben Island until he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison and then the Victor Verster Prison.

On February 2 1990, FW de Klerk, then president of South Africa, unbanned the ANC, the PAC and the South African Communist Party and on February 11 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Said Madiba at the time: "As I finally walked through those gates I felt – even at the age of 71 – that my life was beginning anew. My 10 000 days of imprisonment were at last over." On April 27 1994, the first democratic elections were held in South Africa, the ANC won a sweeping victory and Madiba became South Africa's president.

His personal life suffered, due to his lengthy imprisonment. He missed the joy of seeing his children grow up and he became estranged from Winnie divorcing her in 1996. In April of this year, he stepped down and after the April elections Thabo Mbeki became president. In 1998, on his 80th birthday, Madiba married Graca Machel, his newest and last love. And, as is fitting, they are living happily ever after. As he should, the man who is regarded as the world's greatest statesman, the most loving of husbands, fathers and grandfathers, the finest leader our country has ever known, the man who remains deeply caring and compassionate about all fellow humans.

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