I AM much more shocked and saddened by Nelson Mandela’s death than I expected to be. Suddenly, his not being around feels like a big deal. Not in the sense that some catastrophe may now befall us. But the country feels diminished without him.
Madiba was the best a South African can be. He may not have been perfect, but his ability to think before he acted, to be thoughtful and rational as often as possible, was magnificent. We could all practise at it. Our politics have become so chaotic. We need someone calm, like him, in the middle.
In the days ahead we South Africans will be treated to a display of what the moral high ground looks like. We will own it. It will remind us of how powerful we are, and hopefully help us forget for a while how feeble we could so easily become. Don’t forget this feeling. It is what we could always be. We need, just like Madiba, to be focused on just one thing, and that is the eradication of the most shameful thing in our midst.
It is poverty, particularly among Africans, and it is our national disgrace. Everything we do must be to fix it, because fixing it will change our history completely.
It isn’t easy and the road ahead is indeed rocky. Stuff happens that you can’t predict or prepare for. It has even been an eye-opener to read completely new bits of the Mandela story creeping out now he is no longer alive. Nothing gets in the way of the love and admiration, but parts of his magnificent story are only now being told. Or, perhaps, appropriated.
For instance, both the ANC and the Communist Party said in their statements after his death on Thursday night that Mandela had in fact not only been a member of the Communist Party but that he had also sat on its central committee. In his biography, Long Walk to Freedom, he declares, "I was not a communist or a member of the party". So, what is the truth?
The facts matter, in a way, even though they may change nothing.
And then there was the New York Times obituary on Thursday, which, triggered by Madiba’s passing, for the first time quotes him criticising his successor, Thabo Mbeki. "There is a great deal of centralisation now under president Mbeki," he told the paper in 2007. "We never liked that."
He was, in every conceivable way, a lovely man. And Nelson Mandela will continue to inform, captivate and guide this great nation for as long as we remember him.
...
ONE person in urgent need of some advice from Madiba is one of his most sanctimonious admirers, Iqbal Survé, owner of the Sekunjalo group and, more recently, Independent News & Media South Africa. He has removed Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois from her post for failing to run company-approved stories last Friday after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela ruled on a fishing contract which had been awarded to Sekunjalo.
She said it had been awarded improperly (by Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson). The Business Report supplement inside had Sekunjalo being vindicated by Madonsela. But the Cape Times front page had her drawing a line in the sand on corruption.
Boom. Editor gone.
"Tell Tata (Mandela) that Independent is coming home," Survé is said to have asked of Madiba’s grandson, Mandla, when its former Irish owners agreed to sell the group to Survé and a Chinese consortium a few month ago. Some homecoming. What a disgrace.
Last Thursday Survé commandeered the editorial pages of his dailies in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban to launch a long and largely witless attack on Times Media, the owners of this newspaper, for an (accurate as it turns out) article about the fishing contract investigation by Madonsela. He ended with the following flourish: "The newspaper group I now lead will remain what it has always been, a place where all world views, ideas and political schools are welcome."
After that article led to complaints about editorial interference, the group made a quick unsigned (understandably) statement vowing that "concerns that The Cape Times may become a vehicle for the expression of the corporate interests of the Sekunjalo group … are unfounded."
Then the group’s lawyers wrote this to the editor-in-chief of The Cape Times: "The report of the public protector clears Sekunjalo of all wrongdoing. It would have been appropriate … if The Cape Times had published on its front page the more accurate articles which were buried on page 18 of Business Report of December 6 that Sekunjalo had been vindicated, and that the company had demanded an apology."
The Cape Times’ apology to its owner is due to appear on Monday.
...
QUICK housekeeping. Thank you for sticking with us, readers and advertisers both, through this year. I am so grateful for and humbled by your support. And to my colleagues, for whose professionalism and dedication there can never be enough gratitude, thank you, anyway. Please come home safely from your holidays. We will not publish the newspaper between December 23 and January 3, but our fantastic website, www.bdlive.co.za, will be fully functional and up to date. Read us on your tablet or your phone on the beach. We will drop the digital paywall so it’ll be free if you’ll just be so kind as to register with us. Thank you.
...
AND a quick note to media trying to cover Nelson Mandela’s funeral in Qunu next weekend. The Donald Woods Foundation has accommodation down the road from Qunu near, and, indeed, on, the beach. You can contact his son, Dillon Woods, through the foundation on www.DonaldWoodsFoundation.org.
ICON: Nelson Mandela. Picture: SOWETAN
I AM much more shocked and saddened by Nelson Mandela’s death than I expected to be. Suddenly, his not being around feels like a big deal. Not in the sense that some catastrophe may now befall us. But the country feels diminished without him.
Madiba was the best a South African can be. He may not have been perfect, but his ability to think before he acted, to be thoughtful and rational as often as possible, was magnificent. We could all practise at it. Our politics have become so chaotic. We need someone calm, like him, in the middle.
In the days ahead we South Africans will be treated to a display of what the moral high ground looks like. We will own it. It will remind us of how powerful we are, and hopefully help us forget for a while how feeble we could so easily become. Don’t forget this feeling. It is what we could always be. We need, just like Madiba, to be focused on just one thing, and that is the eradication of the most shameful thing in our midst.
It is poverty, particularly among Africans, and it is our national disgrace. Everything we do must be to fix it, because fixing it will change our history completely.
It isn’t easy and the road ahead is indeed rocky. Stuff happens that you can’t predict or prepare for. It has even been an eye-opener to read completely new bits of the Mandela story creeping out now he is no longer alive. Nothing gets in the way of the love and admiration, but parts of his magnificent story are only now being told. Or, perhaps, appropriated.
For instance, both the ANC and the Communist Party said in their statements after his death on Thursday night that Mandela had in fact not only been a member of the Communist Party but that he had also sat on its central committee. In his biography, Long Walk to Freedom, he declares, "I was not a communist or a member of the party". So, what is the truth?
The facts matter, in a way, even though they may change nothing.
And then there was the New York Times obituary on Thursday, which, triggered by Madiba’s passing, for the first time quotes him criticising his successor, Thabo Mbeki. "There is a great deal of centralisation now under president Mbeki," he told the paper in 2007. "We never liked that."
He was, in every conceivable way, a lovely man. And Nelson Mandela will continue to inform, captivate and guide this great nation for as long as we remember him.
...
ONE person in urgent need of some advice from Madiba is one of his most sanctimonious admirers, Iqbal Survé, owner of the Sekunjalo group and, more recently, Independent News & Media South Africa. He has removed Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois from her post for failing to run company-approved stories last Friday after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela ruled on a fishing contract which had been awarded to Sekunjalo.
She said it had been awarded improperly (by Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson). The Business Report supplement inside had Sekunjalo being vindicated by Madonsela. But the Cape Times front page had her drawing a line in the sand on corruption.
Boom. Editor gone.
"Tell Tata (Mandela) that Independent is coming home," Survé is said to have asked of Madiba’s grandson, Mandla, when its former Irish owners agreed to sell the group to Survé and a Chinese consortium a few month ago. Some homecoming. What a disgrace.
Last Thursday Survé commandeered the editorial pages of his dailies in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban to launch a long and largely witless attack on Times Media, the owners of this newspaper, for an (accurate as it turns out) article about the fishing contract investigation by Madonsela. He ended with the following flourish: "The newspaper group I now lead will remain what it has always been, a place where all world views, ideas and political schools are welcome."
After that article led to complaints about editorial interference, the group made a quick unsigned (understandably) statement vowing that "concerns that The Cape Times may become a vehicle for the expression of the corporate interests of the Sekunjalo group … are unfounded."
Then the group’s lawyers wrote this to the editor-in-chief of The Cape Times: "The report of the public protector clears Sekunjalo of all wrongdoing. It would have been appropriate … if The Cape Times had published on its front page the more accurate articles which were buried on page 18 of Business Report of December 6 that Sekunjalo had been vindicated, and that the company had demanded an apology."
The Cape Times’ apology to its owner is due to appear on Monday.
...
QUICK housekeeping. Thank you for sticking with us, readers and advertisers both, through this year. I am so grateful for and humbled by your support. And to my colleagues, for whose professionalism and dedication there can never be enough gratitude, thank you, anyway. Please come home safely from your holidays. We will not publish the newspaper between December 23 and January 3, but our fantastic website, www.bdlive.co.za, will be fully functional and up to date. Read us on your tablet or your phone on the beach. We will drop the digital paywall so it’ll be free if you’ll just be so kind as to register with us. Thank you.
...
AND a quick note to media trying to cover Nelson Mandela’s funeral in Qunu next weekend. The Donald Woods Foundation has accommodation down the road from Qunu near, and, indeed, on, the beach. You can contact his son, Dillon Woods, through the foundation on www.DonaldWoodsFoundation.org.
