BELOVED icon Nelson Mandela was most disappointed in his latter years at the poor quality of leadership across the entire spectrum of society, from education to politics.
This was one of the many revelations shared by Madiba archivist Verne Harris at a Rotary Empangeni fundraiser held at the Umfolozi Casino Resort in aid of Leisure Gardens, Thuthukani and Ezemvelo’s anti-poaching unit.
Having had almost daily contact with the country’s first democratic president for two decades, and access to his diaries and personal notes, Harris was in a unique position to get to know the non-public side of Mandela.
‘We all see the great leader, peace-maker and humanitarian he was,’ but less is said and known about his weaknesses and mistakes.
‘He did extraordinary things, but as a normal, fallible human being who didn’t always get it right,’ Harris told the large audience.
‘In some instances, his strengths became his weaknesses.
‘For example he was too loyal in listening to and putting up with people, who often spoke nonsense for hours.
‘He would allow people to say anything they liked, however aggressive they might have been; his instinct was always to listen.’
Male chauvinist-
Harris said Mandela was ‘quite vain’ and loved attention.
‘This meant he had too many ‘bling’ connections, who made the most of his celebrity status and were a distraction.
‘He always made his own decisions and would tell us we don’t need to protect him, but sometimes those decisions were poorly made.
‘For example, when he started getting flack over his statement that the voting age should be lowered to 14 years, he wrote in his diary: ‘I made a poor error of judgement’.
‘But he had a huge capacity to laugh at himself, just as he had a wonderful ability to live with his own mortality.
‘He had no regrets, because he never lived backwards, into the past, and he was always aware he wouldn’t be on this earth forever.’
Harris said Madiba was obsessed with keeping records and making notes.
‘Besides his diary, he always carried two notebooks and would even write down things from newspaper articles he was reading.
‘He was extremely disciplined and had a daily commitment to ‘liberating himself’.
‘One of his failings was that he was a male chauvinist, and he struggled to overcome this.
‘Despite attaining a law degree he was in fact a poor student and failed 35 courses on the way to getting his degree over a long period of time.’
Asked what would be Mandela’s message to this generation, Harris said he would want people to find courage within themselves to help make this country and this life a better one.
