Did Nelson Mandela Sell Us Out?
- nomfundo mbuyazi
- Jun 24, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 15, 2023
I thought only Jesus could forgive people who had murdered his own people, stolen his land, had a policeman invade his home, had his mothers and sisters raped at the hands of these very same men, and all his hard earnings stolen and thrown into an empire made from the blood, sweat, and tears of his own people. Nelson Mandela was crucified, and he chose to die for the sins of White people. It was all masked in a Truth and Reconciliation at the expense of conning the Black nation.
Between the years of 1985-1990, Mandela was having negotiations with PW Botha and of these meetings, Oliver Tambo expressed his concern and said that, "Prisoners can't negotiate their freedom. “Tambo’s concern did indeed manifest itself during the negotiations as Mandela had abandoned the core principle of the ANC, one which was also written in the Freedom Charter which was the nationalization of the bank, mines and minerals.
The Charter states that "The national wealth of the country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people; the mineral wealth beneath the soil; the banks and monopoly industries shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole; all other industries and trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the people"
In the 1994 elections, all that Black South Africans had naively received was the right to vote. After these elections, an ANC economic program had been drawn up which Nelson Mandela had sent to one of the Apartheid economic symbols that was Harry Oppenheimer for approval. Key revisions were thereafter made to address Oppenheimer's concerns and to also address the concerns of top industrialists, this shows us how we were being ruled by a leader who served to please White capitalism. One of the most important assets that were being fought for was the nationalization of the South African Reserve Bank, Vishnu Padayachee was asked to draw up a document for the negotiation team which he was to clearly state the positive and negative factors of having a nationalized bank. He was later told by the negotiation team, "We had to give that one up.” If Mandela and his team were going to give up all possible degrees of gaining nationalization, then that in itself was our surrendering moment once again and this time, willingly.
Section 25 of the constitution has been a tongue twister in recent years, and it is a reflection of how the South African constitution is a document that favors Whiteness over Blackness. Over the recent years, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has bought up this issue, arguing that there should be land expropriation without compensation. The current Section 25 of the constitution supports land expropriation with compensation and from that, only 8% of the commercial agricultural land has been bought back at the total cost of over 77 billion Rand which is more than half the cost of the total land value. The land reform strategy which includes Restitution, Redistribution, and Tenure reform has not been successful due to the lack of financial support. The hypocrisy behind Section 25 is why should stole land be bought back?
After our so-called democracy, South Africans were then introduced to the Rainbow Nation ideology which was coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Rainbow Nation ideology aimed to emphasize sameness and help dismantle discrimination and racism. In recent years, this ideology has proven to be problematic as it has been shown to have brought up a generation that doesn't see colour and is in return oblivious to injustices suffered by Black people and a generation of White people that deny their benefits from White privilege. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a mandate that aimed to help serve justice to the victims that experienced human rights violations and political injustices during the Apartheid era. The TRC took the testimonies of 21,000 people and 2000 appeared in a public court. Perpetrators who confessed could ask for amnesty from civil and criminal prosecution, and victims would be offered reparations. Some victims have claimed to have never received reparations and describe the TRC to have only deepened their pain as justice was not served. Another major downfall of the TRC is that its focus on civil and political violations came to the extent of having neglected the socio-economic rights of Black people. It's 2021 and 64,2% of the Black population is living in poverty and we still don't have our land back.
Have you ever asked yourself why Nelson Mandela has a cult following? The answer to this is because he is a product of White rebranding. Although he sold us out, I ask myself why is it that the presidents that followed after him did not take the batten and propel us farther on? In that case, I'll conclude with that they have all sold us out.
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgBxaeHvKwk&t=1962s
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