EDITOR – The story of South Africa is a story woven from the fabric of contradictions, struggle and survival into a garment of endurance and hope – based on the life story of one man, former President Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela.
The lessons drawn from his life and leadership will continue to be the motivating force and guiding light for all humanity for decades to come. As a nation, we have been very privileged to bask in the sunlight of his gracious leadership, his generous spirit and his all-embracing warmth and wisdom. When he wrote in his book Long Walk to Freedom that “The greatest glory in living, lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”, little did we understand the depth of those words as we do today. Even today, as he has fallen to the tides of time as all flesh will do, he rises in each of us who embrace the Mandela in us, and who seek to connect to the power of “the idea whose time has come”. Every South African, in honour of our greatest citizen, must seek to live out the “Ideas, like freedom whose time has come’. We owe it to him and our children to always make this country a place of peace and the home of all who love freedom.
For us, who today bade him farewell, and cling to his extra-ordinary spirit, exemplary conduct, his profound wisdom and fond memories, it is with an intense sense of responsibility that we, as the Community Chest, honour his legacy and record our sincere gratitude to the man, Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela for giving us, our children and the generations to come a future and a hope we can believe in.
The words which best describes this moment for us in Community Chest is recorded in “Long Walk to Freedom”: “I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended. “
Today we mourn, but tomorrow we will rise, we will be inspired and we will succeed.
Hamba Kahle Tata Mandela Hamba Kahle
Gordon Mc Donald Executive Director of Ubuntu Community Chest
