Nelson Mandela - Dead or Dying?

Is Nelson Mandela in the Heavenly Departure Lounge? Hospital access denied, says the South African press, adding that his condition has been “Scary, but he is holding on to life” since Friday when he was admitted to “a Pretoria hospital”.

When, not if the iconic Nelson Mandela leaves the building, one question will remain: can a man who so quickly relinquished power after waiting 27 years to gain it, leave a power vacuum?

Pobably not.

South African politics has not changed significatly in economic terms since 1996 when the ‘changeover’ in the colour of its leadership began.

The African National Congress (ANC) did not declare the country’s Apartheid debts as ‘Odious’, kept the same trading partners as the white repressive government before it, incurred even more debt with its notorious Arms Deal, decimated the Agriculural sector be ‘removing’ two million, four hundred thousand farm workers and turned a blind eye to the murder of the remaining farmers, becoming a net importer of food by 2007.

And becoming dependent on the distribution of that food by the Chinese-run Wall-Mart company.

The successor to Mandela’s Rainbow throne, Presdent Thabo Mbeki also made an early exit from power under a cloud of Arms Deal bribe money, followed by an “almost” fraud accused Jacob Zuma whose co-accused ‘took the fall’ with a golfing holiday.

Zuma is a ‘charismatic’ leader who is fond of peace time machine guns, and who has held the reigns of power since Mbeki partly by ANC political enertia, but also by lowering the boom on emerging opposition internal power bases like the ANC Youth League and its leader, Julius Malema.

Plus ca change, plus ce la meme chose: the rich may change the colour of their spots, but they still get richer and the poor still expect service delivery from a government that spends R200 million upgrading its leader’s country home.

Thank you for trying, Mr Mandela.

Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on July 18, 1918, to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.

After his father’s death in 1927, the young Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni. Hearing the elder’s stories of his ancestor’s valour during the wars of resistance, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.