How sad Madiba would’ve been…

It is not surprising that the gilt on the halo of Nelson Mandela has been steadily losing its tarnish as South Africans struggle with poverty, racism which refuses to die and looting and inefficiency which threaten to steal our children’s future.

It is more than 33 years since he walked free from prison and led the country to democracy… but that very passage of time has dulled the memories of what he and others in the struggle achieved – and how, in the end, everybody involved in the birth of the “New South Africa” was forced to compromise.

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The alternative – a bloody civil war – was, truly, too ghastly to contemplate. Had that terrible conflict eventuated, it would have made the troubles we are currently going through look like a Sunday school picnic.

Madiba was the saviour this country needed at that juncture in history – but would he be happy with his country now, or would he feel his dreams and vision have been betrayed?

He said once: “As long as many of our people still live in utter poverty, as long as children still live under plastic covers, as long as many of our people are still without jobs, no South African should rest and wallow in the joy of freedom.”

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Poverty is still here. So is the gap between rich and poor. The gulf between the races, which he tried so hard to bridge, is widening. And an ocean full of money, which could have gone a long way to alleviating poverty, has been stolen.

Our infrastructure is crumbling. Crime is getting worse, as is the cost of living and unemployment. People are running out of hope.

That would have made Madiba sad … and angry. All of us owe it to his memory to make this country the beacon for humanity he believed it could be.

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