Nelson Mandela is a symbol, an icon, one of the world’s most famous statesmen, recognised and revered by all. He dines with royalty, associates with the world’s great leaders and his opinion is sought and valued on all weighty matters. He has achieved an almost divine status in the world, equal to that of the Pope or the late Princess Diana.
Most people would agree wholeheartedly with the above quote. But they run into an unexpected problem when someone asks “why is he considered such a great statesman?”
The problem is that Mandela, apart from having a likeable personality, has achieved next to nothing in his relatively short political career which saw South Africa rapidly decline to the status of the world’s most violent and crime-ridden country, and, to add to the confusion, his greatest friends are communists and dictators.
His ex-wife Winnie Mandela, whom he quickly left when it became clear she was a considerable embarassment to his political career, is a self-confessed advocate of terrorism and violence and has committed murder.
In his public statements and speeches Mandela is always critical of the democratic countries of the west, but has nothing but praise for the remaining communist dictatorships of the world. He condemns mistakes and controversial policies of the west, but refuses to publicly condemn the genocides and brutal repression of current or former communist countries.
The truth is that the ANC cried when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989…
