Nelson Mandela passed on Thursday 12/5 and
there is no doubt that he was a brave and courageous man who endured many
hardships. For him to come through it with a forgiving and understanding heart
is a testament to his (and our) humanity. What is written below is not meant to
disparage Nelson Mandela. It is rather meant to show what he and many African
leaders as well as other leaders around the world have to face and the choices
they are urged to make. This also gives insight as to why men like Nelson
Mandela are hailed and paraded around as heroes while men like Patrice Lumumba,
Samory Toure and Muhammad Ahmad Al Mahdi are either rarely mentioned or
forgotten. The media's job is to get us caught up in feelings and emotions, but
below is the endgame.
Nelson Mandela had meetings between 1985-1990 with P. W. Botha to have a
negotiated settlement. Revered late ANC President, Oliver Reginald Tambo,
referring to the meetings with the colonial-apartheid regime in the crucial
1980s, said “Prisoners can’t negotiate their freedom”. According to aged ANC
veterans, Tambo was disturbed about senior members of the leadership including
[Mandela], who could have compromised the organisation. He seemed to question
whom to trust. This, according to those veterans, eventually led to Tambo’s
first stroke.
In 1990 before he was released from prison Mandela assured his supporters
that the nationalisation of mines, banks and minerals was on the table. That
belief had formed the core doctrine of the ANC and was enshrined in a document
known as The Freedom Charter.
"The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be
restored to the people; the mineral wealth beneath the soil; the banks and
monopoly industries shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a
whole; all other industries and trade shall be controlled to assist the
well-being of the people,"
the charter states.
It later emerged that Mandela and other ANC leaders were busily creatively
re-interpreting the “Freedom Charter’s” commitment to nationalisation in order
to comfort the monopoly white capitalists.
The nature of the sell out
Mandela negotiated with the Nationalists [European Afrikaners] to oversee a
settlement which guarantees the maintenance of a white capitalist South Africa
and of the profits extracted from the exploited black masses, and leaves power
firmly in the hands of the white capitalists for the foreseeable future. As De
Klerk has insisted “I do not intend to negotiate myself out of power”. On the
contrary, negotiations were intended to prevent the victory of the black
masses.
Failed transfer of power during negotiations
The negotiations focused on two aspects: one was political, the other
economic. When Mandela, negotiated with the Nationalists, he accepted the
separation of political and economic power. That was the big mistake and the
betrayal to black people. The transfer of ownership of wealth and land is at the
heart of a transfer of power. Hence it was clearly stipulated in the Freedom
Charter. But Mandela had to ignore that.
Failed economic negotiations and state ownership of the Reserve
Bank
Mandela's mandate from the people was to ensure that the values of the Freedom
Charter were implemented including nationalisation of country’s assets. Instead
of nationalising the mines Mandela was meeting regularly with Harry Oppenheimer,
former chairman of the mining giants Anglo-American and De Beers, the economic
symbols of apartheid rule. Shortly after the 1994 election, Mandela even
submitted the ANC’s economic program to Oppenheimer for approval and made
several key revisions to address his concerns, as well as those of other top
industrialists. Mandela sold out the minerals and land to the imperialists.
The outcomes of those meetings were that Mandela could have the political power
but the gold and diamonds would remain in the hands of the individuals that
controlled it before. One of the most revealing aspects of the economic
transition was the ownership of the Reserve Bank of South Africa. Arguably the
most powerful institution in the country, its fate was explained by Durban
businessman Vishnu Padaychee; asked to draft a document for the negotiating team
on the on the pro’s and con’s of having an autonomous central bank, run with
total autonomy from the elected government. Padayachee could not believe what he
was hearing. He and his team drafted and submitted the document with a clear
policy of not allowing the Reserve Bank to be autonomous. He was later told by
the negotiating team that, “We had to give that one up”.
The bank is privately owned and today has some 650 shareholders. During the
negotiations Mandela agreed that not only would the Reserve Bank be run as an
autonomous entity within the South African state, with its independence
enshrined in the SA constitution, but it would be headed by the same man who ran
it under apartheid, Chris Stals. Another Apartheid era figure, finance minister
Derek Keyes, also retained his position in the new administration. Padayachee
lamented that with the loss of the Reserve Bank, “everything would be lost in
terms of economic transformation”. One of the Freedom Charter pledges is the
redistribution of land; this became highly constrained with a new clause in the
constitution which protected all private property.
Letter From a South African Youth
"Reconciliation has meant nothing but black people `forgiving’ whites for 300+
years of dispossession, humiliation and suffering. I experience pain every time
a white South African - at the shop; in a bar; on the Talk Radio 702 or online
forums - says that “We need to forget the past, get over it.” It is like they
are saying to us `forget your pain’. And that from someone who benefited at your
expense! We have suffered racial abuse and our abusers are among us. You and
Desmond Tutu’s rainbow myth glossed over
this pain - much to the relief of whites. Whites fail to acknowledge our pain
and suffering - and their position as beneficiaries of our pain. But you were
overly concerned with not rocking the boat as far as whites were concerned. That
is why you are the subject of a personality cult in the white community moreso
than the black community. Whites in this country believe that you are the only
honourable black person while the rest of us blacks are corrupt, criminals,
rapists, drunkards and uneducated buffoons. You sold us as black nation for a
“Noble Peace Prize” and that is the reason for the service delivery
demonstration and the lack of service delivery. Our Constitution hailed as the
best in the world favours the Caucasians while it oppresses the Africans. Thanks
for nothing Mandela. Before you leave this earth I would like you to take
responsibility and apologise for your actions and what you did to black people.
You sold our land to the imperialists, if you fail to apologise before you die
it simply means you are an accomplice to them. "
~ Letter from a South African Youth
Blacks remain landless, underfed, houseless, under- employed, badly
represented in senior managerial positions. The state of healthcare and
education for black people remains as it was, if not worse than, under
apartheid. Vestiges of apartheid and colonial economic patterns, ownership and
control remain intact despite the attainment of political freedom by Mandela.
The unemployment crisis is also defined along racial lines due to the fact that
in the third quarter of 2010, 29.80% of blacks were officially unemployed,
compared with 5.10% of whites.
*When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in February 1990, President George
Bush personally telephoned the black South African leader to tell him that all
Americans were "rejoicing at your release". This was the same Nelson Mandela who
was imprisoned for almost 28 years because the CIA tipped off South African
authorities as to where they could find him. The CIA and National Security
Agency collaborated closely with the South African intelligence service,
providing information about Mandela's African National Congress.