Mandela The President

As president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela was more of a nation builder than a governor

My installation as the first democratically elected president of the Republic of South Africa was imposed on me much against my advice

On 10 May, 1994, global attention was locked on South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was being inaugurated the first democratically elected leader of the country.

It would not have happened if South Africans had heeded Mandela’s advice against making him president, an aberration on a continent where liberators are known to have an epic sense of entitlement.

In his inaugural address, the new president announced the direction the country was going. “Never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another,” he said in allusion to the racial despotism that had tarnished his nation. Giving life to those words was a Herculean task.

The government of national unity he headed had Frederick de Klerk as his first deputy and Thabo Mbeki as his second. Mandela’s first year in office gave an undisguised indication of the range of vision and boldness he imbued it with. Though he started wearing African batik shirts, even for formal occasions, he also wore the jersey of the Springbok rugby team, a previous figure of hate among black South Africans, for the 1995 Rugby World Cup. This gesture was widely viewed as a major step in the reconciliation of the white and black populations. He would wear it again while presenting the winner’s trophy to the Springbok’s captain Francois Pienaar, an Afrikaner.

Mandela sacked Winnie from her cabinet post, on account of corruption allegations for which she was eventually sentenced to five years in prison. He drank tea with the widows of white politicians and paid a visit to the white enclave of Orania to see the widow of Hendrik Verwoerd, the primary designer of the infamous apartheid system.

For his mainstream support, he initiated housing, education, healthcare and economic development programmes to address age-old social and economic inequities in South Africa and improve the living standards of the country’s black population. It was a huge balancing task. But through his patience, wisdom, vision and, most importantly, moral integrity, he banished the fears of white South Africans and firmly secured the support of his own followers, many of whom could have been swayed by more militant voices. His appointment of Archbishop Desmond Tutu as Chair of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission–to investigate human rights abuses of the apartheid era–turned out a winner in confronting the horror of the past in a way that moved the nation forward.

Despite his advanced age (he became president at 75), Mandela took to the task with rigour. But his presidency was hardly the most fruitful part of his career. It was blighted by the scandals involving Winnie and corruption of many of his colleagues in the ANC. His programmes to deliver jobs and housing to the most wretched segments of the black majority delivered less than anticipated. Crime rates did not dip in the townships and elsewhere. Neither did those of HIV/AIDS.

Though he ordered troops into Lesotho to maintain peace after a fiercely disputed election, he seemed, at least publicly, reluctant to exert serious pressure on President Robert Mugabe, who had started messing up Zimbabwe’s economy and democracy.

Mandela, however, oversaw the enactment of a new democratic constitution in 1996 and the following year, resigned as leader of the ANC in favour of Thabo Mbeki. He also confirmed his intention not to seek a second term as president when his term of office expired in 1999, another aberration in Africa where leaders suffer from messiah complex.

As president of South Africa, and after his retirement from the job, Mandela’s stature continued to grow. Famous singer, Bob Geldof, described him as “the president of the world”.

After retirement as president, he established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and became active in international peacemaking. He continued to make contributions on the international stage, speaking out against the war on Iraq in 2003.

He also started making amends for the omissions he made in office, publicly criticising Mugabe in 2000, referring to African leaders who had liberated their countries but had then overstayed their welcome. He began to campaign on the issue of AIDS, speaking at international conferences and giving support to the 46664 fund-raising campaign, named after his prison number. When his son, Makgatho, died in 2005 Mandela admitted that the cause of death was AIDS, an admission many families avoided for fear of stigmatisation.

At a point he acknowledged that he may not have paid sufficient attention to the pandemic as president.

—Bamidele Johnson