Mandela made several mistakes, but escaped scrutiny and criticism

I listened with interest to a video circulating on social media where advocate Muzi Sikhakhane questioned why blacks tend to “betray each other when we have so-called political power”.

He went on to question why Nelson Mandela, on his release from jail, only visited the widow of apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd but not the widows of PAC founder Mangaliso Sobukwe and Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, mamas Veronica Sobukwe and Ntsiki Biko respectively.

It’s the way Sikhakhane deals with court matters and how he would raise hot taboo topics that will leave an indelible mark in one’s mind. He always reminds me of a lawyer friend of mine, the late Mzimkhulu Gwentshe, son of the famous ANC leader Alcott Gwentshe in the Eastern Cape.

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Sikhakhane was not attacking Mandela, but raised a pertinent point that Madiba was not infallible but was prone to make mistakes like all of us. Mandela made several mistakes as a leader, but escaped scrutiny and criticism because he was Mandela, a man with a saint-like stature.

Criticising him was to risk inviting much anger against you from all directions. Mandela tended to treat reconciliation as a black versus white issue and not in broad terms.

Imagine if he also paid visits to Mrs Sobukwe and Mrs Biko, what that would have meant to reconcile those victims of the apartheid era clashes between the ANC-UDF supporters and followers of the PAC and Azapo.

There had always been a need for reconciliation among blacks who suffered due to self-induced tribalism and tribalism that was weaponised by the National Party to pursue its divide-and-rule policies that disadvantaged Africans in particular.

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The historic Xhosa versus Amamfengu and petty Zulu versus “AmaShangane” (AmaTsonga) tensions continue to date, without being addressed. We had seen how the politicisation of tribal differences bore black-and-black violence under the National Party and self-induced tribalism that resulted in tribal wars.

Some often said Mandela pursued reconciliation with whites who did not want to reconcile with blacks and that he should have spent more time and energy to seek reconciliation among blacks. Many would disagree with that.

One could understand, though, why Mandela’s priority was black versus white reconciliation and nation-building. To Madiba’s credit, perhaps he did not see the black widows as more of a menace to racial peace and nation-building than the white widows whose people lived under Verwoerd’s spell of apartheid and posed a threat to racial harmony in a democratic South Africa.

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Mandela was further blamed by some for the Gear (growth, employment and redistribution) strategy that he introduced against the wishes of the Left. His deputy then, Thabo Mbeki, took much flak for Mandela’s sin on this neoliberal economic policy because he had no choice but to implement it as an ANC-endorsed policy when he took over.

In introducing Gear, Mandela told the Left to take it or leave it, otherwise nothing will stop the ANC from implementing it.

When Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema lambasted Madiba for being a “sellout”, the ANC and almost the entire society came down hard on him. Yet it was Mandela who, after consultation with white monopoly capital, including Harry Oppenheimer, cancelled nationalisation and the RDP programme, policies that were geared to empower blacks economically.

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Mandela was always cushioned by society, including the opposition, the media and even ordinary people as they believed he was beyond criticism. We must never treat any leader like that.