Tribute to Nelson Mandela by Bantu Holomisa (16 July 2008)

Nelson Mandela turns 90 this year. I have been blessed to have personally known and worked with him. Looking back over our relationship, certain events stand out.

I went to meet him for the first time in his old 4-roomed house in Soweto just after his release. Whilst I thanked him for his role in the Struggle, he thanked me for the role of the Transkei military government in supporting the liberation movements. Immediately I was on duty because I had to arrange security and bodyguards. Together with colleagues from the Transkei Defence Force we were responsible for his security at rallies around the country until the relevant MK cadres were cleared and given indemnity and could take up the task of his security. Later on I worked closely with him when the black-on-black violence flared up around June 1990.

It was during all these trying times that I came to know his leadership style and his sharp mind when it came to strategy. It was also during the times of CODESA when he would not hesitate to confront directly over the phone Messrs De Klerk or Pik Botha over the issue of violence. He also displayed leadership and a no-nonsense attitude when Pretoria was squeezing the then Transkei financially. Indeed that direct approach that he used was exemplified when I was in his office at Shellhouse one morning in 1992, when we were preparing to address the United Nations Security Council. It was around half past eight, when he called his then PA Barbara Masekhela and asked her to put him through to the then US President George Bush Senior. Barbara banged the door open with her hands on her hips and said: "Daddy, don't you know that Bush is asleep now." And realising that it was very late at night in Washington, Madiba said: "Ok, darling, when he's awake, see to it that I speak to him." The call came around 15h30 in the afternoon. Indeed when he spoke to President Bush, he spoke in his usual style of "instructing", and advised that the US UN representative should support the OAU resolution which called for the UN to deploy violence monitors to South Africa. While we were waiting for Mr Bush to come back, calls were made to almost all of the Presidents and leaders of the Security Council's permanent members. When we departed that same evening to New York we already knew that the majority of the UN Security Council would approve the OAU resolution.

On the other hand Pik Botha and a band of homeland leaders who were opposed to the OAU resolution had no idea that we already had such wide support from the UN Security Council members. That was the ability of Madiba to resolve matters. He would never hesitate to pick up the phone to speak directly to the people who made decisions. Such was the authority of the man even before he became President of the country. I also accompanied him in 1993 to ask the UN to lift sanctions against South Africa. We know the whole world followed him. From New York we went to Europe to meet Premiers, Presidents and Kings where he fundraised for the ANC 1994 election campaign. There again the word "request" was not in his vocabulary. In the majority of occasions he got what he wanted. It is his modesty that contributes to our esteem of him. It takes a truly remarkable person, one of stern character and integrity, to remain modest in the face of the adulation of almost every person he meets. In all of human history there have been only a small handful of people who are so universally admired.

As South Africans and Africans we take great pride in this man who represents in his resilience, his patience, his compassion and his ability to listen, everything that we aspire to be. We often speak of the African Renaissance and about re-positioning Africa on the political and cultural map of the world. In Nelson Mandela we have a Renaissance Man to exemplify those ideals. Here is an African as intellectual, who qualified and practiced as a lawyer when it was almost impossible for an African in this country to even dream of such a thing. Here is a man who was a boxer, symbolic of warrior ethics. Here is a man who at a very young age made momentous decisions along with other courageous men and women to oppose the oppression of Africans, even if it meant taking up arms. At Rivonia he made his famous statement about the ideals of freedom and equality for which he was prepared to lay down his life, and his words reverberated across the world. Indeed, at that moment he skewered Apartheid through its morally bankrupt heart. Truly a Renaissance Man: activist, intellectual, warrior, orator and leader.

After Rivonia he disappeared into prison life, but throughout the world his name remained on the lips of democrats. He became a myth, a symbol, a mantra. Millions moved and acted with that symbol in mind. He emerged from prison after 27 years, and astounded everybody by proving to be even bigger than the legend. Throughout CODESA and later - as our first democratic President, he demonstrated exceptional leadership and wisdom. It would have been easy for a lesser man to ride upon the wave of his popularity and force people to overlook his failures and shortcomings. Yet, he was an extraordinary man for an extraordinary time in history. And unlike most, he has never hesitated to admit an error, and he has never let power or popularity blind him to the needs of the people he led. Thus in his leadership after being released he acted in ways that expanded the legend, made tangible all the heroic qualities that had been bestowed upon him during his imprisonment. But he did not stop there. He did something truly remarkable in 1999.

He handed over the reigns of power after one term in office. He would barely have needed to hint and he would've been given a second and even a third term, and he knew that. He retired and we could say he is a living hero. But Madiba has never been content with not being a servant to his people. Despite ostensibly being a pensioner he has been a driving force behind his Children's Foundation, which has done amazing work. And it doesn't stop there either - in the face of political folly and semantics, whilst the AIDS pandemic swept across the nation, he started the 46664 campaign.

I was privileged to be at the recent 46664 concert in London where he clearly said that it is up to us now to continue with the work he has begun. It will indeed be a mammoth task to fill the space he leaves, given that the current crop of leaders seems to be both intellectually and morally challenged. He turns 90 now, and his work rate would put to shame most people half his age. It would be possible to sing his praises all day long and still not exhaust even a fraction of our regard for him.

Perhaps I should try to summarise in four words: We love you Madiba. We hope that Madiba will have a happy birthday and that God will grant us many more years with this living icon.