No defending Mandela’s legacy

Fred Khumalo wrote an article in the Sowetan of August 3, published under the headline, “Mandela remains a hero despite efforts to rubbish his legacy”.

It is surprising that people such as Khumalo have not yet come to terms with the fact that defending Mandela as not having sold out is like getting blood out of a stone. The man sold out and there is palpable evidence that he sold out. What legacy? Of selling out? Because that is his legacy.

Former National Intelligence Service head Niel Barnard says Mandela served only one term and ducked because he knew he was wrong by negotiating without the mandate of the African people. And Khumalo is wrong, Mandela did not sit down with FW de Klerk as part of a collective because Govan Mbeki was not happy with what Mandela was doing and wanted answers from him. Mandela told Mbeki he was negotiating for his release, he did not tell Mbeki the truth.

Khumalo wrote that “peacetime revolutionaries” condemned Mandela as the Judas goat who misled the unsuspecting black masses to the slaughterhouse. PAC leaders Zeph Mothopeng and Jafta Masemola believed Mandela sold out and they are not peacetime revolutionaries.

He credits Mandela for having stopped the violence in KwaZuluNatal. That’s unfortunately not true. Is Khumalo aware that Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi had a longstanding relationship with Harry Oppenheimer, who persuaded him to stop the violence?

Secondly, immediately prior to the elections, Lord Peter Carrington and Henry Kissinger were sent as emissaries by the West to South Africa. Their message to all the players in SA was clear – speed up the sellout process or forfeit British and US support. The PAC leadership were also told by leaders of the Frontline States to board the sellout deal. Fred Khumalo, if you and other Mandela maniacs have nothing to write, just choose something else.

Sam Ditshego Kagiso, Mogale City