By Wilbert Mukori | “Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, statesman and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election,” states Wikipedia.

Wikipedia does not do justice to the man, Nelson Mandela was above all else a visionary leader and, as befitting all visionary leaders, his influence was felt during his lifetime and will echo for many, many more generations to come.

What makes Nelson Mandela such a colossus is that visionary leaders are rare, one in a dynast if you luck, one in a generation if you are very, very luck. In Africa, it is no exaggeration to say visionary leaders are so rare one was given to believed they are extinct. Mount Everest stands majestic as the highest peak in the Himalayas Mountain range. How much more majestic Mount Everest would be if all round it was land as flat as a pancake with a few anthill and rock outcrops a few metres high; such is the standing of Nelson Mandela amongst his fellow Africans.
Some people have criticized Nelson Mandela for failing to lift his fellow blacks out of poverty, “as President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, has done!”.

Full kudos to Paul Kagame for he has indeed managed to stamp out corruption and implement very progressive economic and social policies which have improve the qualitative and quantitative standards of living of Rwandans. Paul Kagame has had the time to implement his transformative agenda; he has been president for the last 20 years and before that, 1994 to 2000, he was VP; Mandela was president for 5 years.

Paul Kagame has created a political system that has allowed him to stay in power regardless of the democratic wishes of the people. It has been ok whilst he remained in power because he has clearly shown that he has very sound economic and social policies to take the nation forward. The problem arises with those who will come after him they will all want to enjoy the same carte blanche powers that has allowed Kagame to stay in power all these years, regardless of their leadership abilities.

All living things will seek power and dominance over others, Charles Darwin called it survival of the fittest or natural selection; it is the most primeval and dominant force on planet earth and will rule supreme to the end of time. What has taken Kagame nearly three decades to accomplish will take a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant – the overwhelming majority of African leaders fit the bill – will destroy in a matter of months! And there lies the distinction between Paul Kagame and Nelson Mandela.

Mandela’s legacy is one of a healthy and functioning democratic system of government enabling society to elect the most competent competitive individuals into power and, just as important, to remove them from office before their primeval instinct to dominate kicks in. There is nothing Paul Kagame has done in Rwanda to stop that country being stuck with just another mediocre leader or, worse, a murderous tyrant.

All Kagame’s achievements are just sandcastles, easily washed away in the next tide or wave. Mandela laid a solid foundation on which a stable and prosperous SA can be built.

True, none of Nelson Mandela’s successors, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and now Cyril Ramaphosa, have accomplished anything of note in their years in office. If the truth be told the ordinary South Africans themselves are to blame for failing to take advantage of the country’s democratic institutions to ensure the elected leaders with some common sense. One hopes that the last 25 years of mediocre to downright corrupt governance under Zuma has a steep learning curve for all South Africans.
Of course, it is very frustrating to every South African that the country has not made any significant inroads into ending poverty in that country; however, no one can deny that the country’s next elections will be free, fair and credible and thus there is hope the nation will be more careful and elect leaders with some common sense, at least.
South Africans are better off than other nations like Zimbabwe in which the individuals who fought to end white colonial rule turned the guns on the ordinary people to impose themselves as the nation’s next rulers; for 41 years and counting the nation has been stuck with corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. Zimbabwe’s economy is in total ruins; the nation has sunk from a upper middle income nation in 1980 to one of the poorest in Africa.
Zimbabwe is due to hold elections in 2023 and already it is clear that Zanu PF will rig the elections, the party has already said it will, once again, deny 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. Mnangagwa reportedly won the 2018 presidency with 2.4 million vote constituting 50.8% of the cast votes! How can an election in which 30% of the eligible voters are denied the vote be a legal, free, fair and credible elections!
The last few weeks have stress tasted SA’s democratic system of government. Former SA President Jacob Zuma and his supporters triggered some of the worst looting, burning and lawlessness since the country’s independence to protest the imprisonment of Zuma. They believe Zuma is above the law and the looting and burning was not going to stop until Zuma was released!
The looting and burning has largely stopped and the lunatics who inspired it are now condemning. They have had the chance to sober up, look down the precipitous fall into the abyss and turn back. They are now agreeing on the need for rule of law, that no one should be above the law, and are ready to embrace Nelson Mandela’s legacy of democracy as SA’s system of government.
In 2016 the American made the mistake of electing Donald Trump President and his four years in office was to tress-test that country’s democratic institutions like nothing since that country’s civil war. The institutions held and in 2020 the nation replace Trump and the country and most of the free world heaved a big sigh of relief!
South Africa and most African nations heaved a big sigh of relief when the looting and burning in SA stopped and Zuma was still in prison where he belongs!
If rule of law and democracy, Nelson Mandela’s greatest legacy to SA, SA will thrive and, in good time elect competent and accountable leaders who will finally address the nation’s economic and social challenges to create a more just, free and prosperous nation in which no one is left behind. If democracy and good governance is proven to work in SA, the pressure for the other African countries to adopt it as a tried and tested system of government will be irresistible. And so Mandela’s legacy to SA will sweep the continent, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, like the life giving rain storm after a prolonged drought!
Zimbabweans have never ever participated in a legal, free, fair and credible elections; a right many the world-over take for granted but one which we have been promised but cheated of again and again. As a child I used to dance for joy in the first rain to mark the end of the dry season I know many Zimbabweans will cry for joy the day Zimbabwe holds its first ever free, fair and credible elections given it may never happen for several more generations!- SOURCE: zimbabwelight.blogspot.com