‘The Madiba no one expected became the Madiba everyone knew’
"When he was released, we thought he would issue a call to arms. Instead he told everyone to take their guns, their knives, their pangas and throw them into the sea."
People would stop George Xolelizwe to ask him what it felt like to meet the great former president, Nelson Mandela.
He’d laugh, recall and in his response recite some of the greatest quotes the freedom fighter ever uttered.
George, who is quite well-known in the Kagiso area, met Tata Madiba a few times. When uTata came to Soccer City Stadium on his nationwide “welcome home” tour in 1990, we expected him to issue a call to arms. It was not the case. Madiba told the multitudes to ‘take your guns, your knives, your pangas and throw them into the sea.’
“This was not the Mandela we had in mind when we sang ‘Umandela uth’ayihlom‘ihlasele‘ (Mandela, say let’s arm ourselves and attack).”
George met Mandela while he was a leader of the Self Defense Unity (SDU). It was popularly known as ‘aMa-united’ in political circles, as the word was taken from the United Democratic Front (UDF). The ANC approached Sister Bernard Neube to provide marshals at the meeting and she didn’t think twice about deploying SDU members.
One of George’s favourite Mandela quotes is, ‘I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die’.
“That piece may be his honesty, integrity, forgiveness and humaneness, all crammed into one statement. It’s a statement that arguably made Mandela the greatest human being of modern times. Each step towards peace that we take, will help us emulate this amazing man who had the strength to swim against powerful streams and change the direction of raging rivers,” George remembered fondly.
To read the full article of George’s memorable moments with Madiba, get your hands on a copy of today’s newspaper and turn to page 11. Alternatively, you can read the newspaper online by clicking here.
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