Letter to Madiba

I jumped up and down, vigorously waving my arms and flashing my biggest smile towards you when you appeared briefly at Soccer City with Mamana Graça at the final World Cup game between Spain and the Netherlands. Nearly a hundred thousand people at the stadium and millions of others all over the world were doing the same. Could you feel the positive energy of millions of hearts sending love and appreciation in your direction? We have certainly felt your presence not only at the stadium on that day but in our lives.

While I cried my first set of cries at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, you were otherwise occupied. The Treason Trial that would end up sending you to jail for life had started. As I learnt to utter my first words, you, Dennis Goldberg, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, James Kantor, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi, Ahmed Kathrada and Raymond Mhlaba were being sent to jail. Right through my youth your picture was anathema and could not be printed. And though we had never seen you, we knew you. The government of the day said your name was taboo and dangerous, so did many of our terror-stricken parents. But a combination of childish curiosity and stubborn defiance led us to sing and call your name at the slightest provocation. The government had aimed to wipe you out of our minds, instead your place was secure in our hearts. Your shadow was edged in our very souls.

We heard of your royal poise and iron determination as you delivered that famous Treason Trial speech. Many remember how you ended that speech — by referring to your cherished ideal of a democratic and free society. I know those words off by heart. But it is the first sentence of that speech that leaves me in utter awe of your leadership. I am the first accused, you said. That is what the state prosecutors called you. But you assumed the “mantle” of “first accused” with bravery and proceeded to redefine it to the judge. You were the first but not the only accused. Clarence Makwetu, Onkgopotse Tiro, Steve Biko, Robert Sobukwe, Tsietsi Mashinini and many others were also accused.

Your accused status was both real and symbolic. You “stepped forward” to become the first accused for a people wrongly accused. Wrongly accused of inferiority, of backwardness, of the inability to live together — a people wrongly condemned to “separate development”. What shall we give you for your 92nd birthday, dear Tata? How shall we repay your life-time sacrifices and the sacrifices of Govan Mbeki, Sobukwe and Oliver Tambo? How shall we make up for the years of absence from family and comrade alike?

You have been exemplary in leadership — inclusive, consultative, impartial and decisive. As a leader you have known when to push and when to pull, when to assume and when to retire. Before 1964 you led as the times demanded but did so without disrespect for life and principle. All former Robben Island inmates speak of your leadership and mentorship in prison. In the transition period between 1990 and 1994 you were presidential without acting desperate for the position. When you did assume the presidency, your presidency was not perfect. Though your government launched us on an economic growth path, “workshopped” us on national reconciliation and led us back into the global family of nations, it did not do so well in the fight against HIV and Aids. But you have since done a lot in this area eg 46664 and have spoken openly about HIV and Aids in your own family.

You have continued to provide leadership after the end of your term as president. I know what we shall give you Tata. We shall give you a country that oozes the ideal you cherished, the ideal for which you have lived for 92 years now — the ideal of freedom for all. Not freedom for the rich or freedom for the politically connected. Not freedom for comrades alone. Not freedom for whites and not freedom for blacks. Not freedom for men and not freedom for women. Freedom for all! For we know now that — as Jonas Gwangwa has sung it to us — freedom for some is freedom for none. We want to give you a democratic country. For your name and in your honour, each one of us will become freedom ambassadors, freedom foot soldiers and freedom defenders. We shall teach it in our schools, practice it in the workplace, defend it in parliament, advocate it in our courts and nurture it in our own homes. We shall give you a future, a future for the children you love so much. We shall do this by building a country in which children will thrive and grow. We shall strive to build an education system that is open and accessible, an education system that harnesses their talent and turns them into able, responsible and ethical citizens of the world. But such a future will only be possible in a world that is sustainable — the best and perhaps the only real heritage we can leave for future generations.

You have given so much to us and to the world. The UN is correct to name July 18th International Mandela Day. Such is your stature in the world. May you enjoy your 92nd dear Tata. We all join hands and hearts in saying “Happy Birthday Madiba!”