Nelson Mandela's Legacy

Two decades ago, I was born in Johannesburg in a time that proved itself to be exciting as people in fetters freed themselves across the planet.

South Africa was particularly special. The crimes against the South African people in the preceding years were notorious, yet the world watched as the country transformed peacefully, and inclusively. Reconciliation supplanted retaliation, and a new country came to being under the best possible auspices.

It is many years since I left South Africa, however, I maintain close links and a sense of affinity with the land of my birth. I eagerly watch developments with pride; there is no place for which I could possibly have better wishes and higher hopes.

It is with regret that I have come to acknowledge that those hopes have proved ephemeral. In the 1990s South Africa had moral authority and under Nelson Mandela it was converted to good use. Mandela was a statesmen envied by citizens all over the world- a man who had overcome unspeakable hardships and used that experience to promote the interests of humanity.

Unfortunately, those days have long since passed. South Africa’s policy to the world has morphed into a realist’s version of ‘Africa First’. Any despot or tyrant is deserving of South African support in the face of Western opposition. The plight of African people seems irrelevant to the ANC now that they have a firm hold on power. Nowhere is this truer than in Zimbabwe, where the South African government’s shameless role as Robert Mugabe’s public relations officer has irrevocably damaged efforts to ease the suffering of the misfortunate people in that country.

South Africa also had the opportunity to convert its moral authority in results when it took a seat on the UN Security Council. Instead it preferred to play the role of a proxy for Russia and China- countries whose policies directly aggravate conflict in Africa- defending some perverse conception of ‘national sovereignty.’ South Africa could have played a role in forcing the Burmese Junta to admit more aid and relief workers, but what do the ANC care about Burma now that they have their own country to run. ANC leaders courted intervention for decades but have since retreated behind a wall of developing world despotism. This is crass hypocrisy.

What a shame that the Mandela legacy has been poisoned by this. And what a terrible pity that now when South Africa makes headline news it is not about South African leaders showing forsaken peoples how to overcome the legacies of brutality and repression. Rather it is when Mbeki lends Mugabe a hand, showing him solidarity in his drive to rule indefinitely.

Yours,

Gary Quinn