By Mark Austin: ITV News presenter
Nelson Mandela Photo:
Just
before the historic first democratic elections in South Africa we were
living in Houghton, Johannesburg, a suburb of wide roads lined by
Jacaranda trees and large houses hidden behind high walls and electric
fences.
Living a few hundred yards from us was Nelson Mandela, soon to be the first black president of his country.
It
was a time of huge expectation but also of violence, crime, chaos and
fear. Mandela’s great fear was that the white population would take
fright and take flight at the prospect of black rule.
One day the local ANC called a meeting at a church hall in Houghton to reassure local whites.
Mandela gestures from the gallery at the opening of parliament in Cape Town. Credit: REUTERS/Schalk van Zuydam/Pool
My
wife went along and listened to a dull speech by an ANC official. After
half an hour the doors opened and in walked a group of ululating women
accompanied by the tall, unmistakable figure of Nelson Mandela.
He smiled, shook hands with everybody and took to the stage.
”We want to build a new South Africa,” he said. ”And we can’t do it without you.” My wife and many others were moved to tears.
It
is a story that epitomises the great man that Mandela was. I was
fortunate to interview him before and after he became president.
Each time his message was the same. He spoke of reconciliation, inclusiveness and forgiveness.
This
was from a man imprisoned by the apartheid regime for 27 long years.
This remarkable lack of bitterness and hatred was a large part of the
reason South Africa made a relatively peaceful transition from the
appalling iniquities of apartheid to democracy.
Could it have happened without Mandela? Possibly. But probably not.
I
once travelled with him by boat to Robben Island. He showed me his tiny
prison cell, 8 ft by 7 ft with straw matting on the concrete floor. His
prisoner number was 46664. (He was the 466th prisoner of 1964).
But
what I remember most is what he said. What he had learnt, he said, was
that hatred achieved nothing. We had to be better than that, he said.
He forgave his jailers and forged a long lasting friendship with some of them. It was hugely significant.
He
went on to prevent a descent into civil war, seeing off the threat of
extremist white right wingers bent on carving out their own homeland,
and bringing relative peace to the townships plagued by political and
tribal violence.
The lack of progress on alleviating the hardships of the poor and unemployed will have disappointed him.
Almost 20 years after he lead the ANC to victory, life for millions of black people remains desperately tough.
But he achieved what he set out to achieve. His people have freedom, dignity and the vote.
And for that he will be remembered as one of the world’s most revered statesmen.
Source: ITV
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