Honour Madiba-legacy living his values

Not even a week after the late former President Nelson Mandela’s state funeral, details of a study emerged where about nine out of ten young people apparently think it would be an honourable thing to do, to honour Madiba’s legacy with a public holiday. 

Holiday best way to honour Mandela

I have a lot of issues with this:
I question the timing of the survey as I feel they could have waited, instead of doing the survey, as a family and nation bid their last farewell to the father of our nation.
A lot of surveys are done and it’s quite easy to do one, but I can’t help to question them. The results in reality do not reflect the view of all the people in that age group.
For some time now we’ve been having the debate on should South Africa not have lesser public holidays, why thus suggest another one. 
My remarks and questions on this are: We a secular democracy, but does our public holidays reflect this. In South Africa there is more than seven different kind of religion, so even if one is to argue that Christians are in the majority, are we not discriminating against another person based on his/her religion?

If you say we need to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, I find it disturbing that especially young people who are fit and able to help grow our economy and create a better future for themselves, would even suggest another public holiday. In my view we could do away with one or two, maybe even more, public holidays. Madiba stood for inclusivity, but does our public holidays reflect inclusivity and one don’t even need to consult the calendar to know the answer is no.

If I could briefly go to the public holidays:
Only the Christian religion is included in the twelve existing public holidays, excluding important religious days for the Islam-, Jewish-, Bahá’í- and other religions. Days on our calendar are Freedom Day (when South Africans of all races could make their mark for our democracy), Youth Day (to mark the 1967 student uprising) and Women’s Day (in honour of the thousands of mothers and daughters who protested to the Union Buildings). In honour of human rights and to commemorate the Sharpville massacre we have Human Rights Day, to pay homage to the working class there is Workers Day and in December we have Reconciliation Day. 
Other days on our calendar are New Years day, Family day as an extension to Good Friday, Christmas and as an extension to Christmas celebrations there is Day of Goodwill. To celebrate the different heritages of our country we also have heritage day.
Apart from the twelve days, the Public Holidays Act (Act No 36 of 1994) determines that whenever any public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following will be a public holiday.
From time to time the President of the Republic is generous and we get once-off Public Holidays like with a General election and on:
• 31 December 1999 and 2 (and 3) January 2000,
• 2 May 2008
• 27 December 2008

Back to my original post
Madiba and many others fought for us to enjoy a democracy with rights and responsibilities, is it fair towards them to suggest we should have a public holiday day to honour Madiba?
I decided to do my own survey and asked 23 young people between 18 and 25 if they think we should in honour of Nelson Mandela have a public holiday? – Now all of them reside in the Western Cape but are from different towns and backgrounds.
Two said it would be nice but would make the youth lazy, while the rest all said we don’t need another public holiday. We either have too many or could rename one is what four of those I asked said.

Here’s my take:
We know Madiba devoted 67 years towards building a better South Africa for all.
All around us; we see the need in our communities; we see unemployment, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, corruption, violence, etc… We should start by making every second of every minute during each hour of every day of the month in the year to make a difference by changing these factors in society. 
We should tell others:
• About the dangers of drugs
• Using protection when having sex and the consequences if you don’t (being HIV, teenage pregnancy and sexual transmitted diseases and infections)
• Educate one to create employment opportunities and or to assist those seeking.
• Be the eyes and ears of the long arm of the law, by going to the police and tell them if you see a crime.
• Not to make yourself guilty on corruption or violence
• Never to judge
We should honour Madiba by living our lives with integrity, dignity and values – having a dream, believing in that dream and striving towards it. 

A statute of former President Nelson Mandela was unveiled by President Jacob G. Zuma on Reconciliation Day
(16 December 2013) at the Union Buildings. This took place a day after Madiba was laid to rest during a State Funeral and the unveiling which started 18 months prior coincided with the centenary of the Union Buildings.

Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough - Obama

Remarks by President of the United States of America, His Excellency Barakc Obama

at the Memorial Service of the late Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa

To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of state and government, past and present; distinguished guests - it is a singular honor to be with you today, to celebrate a life unlike any other. To the people of South Africa - people of every race and walk of life - the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.

It is hard to eulogize any man - to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person - their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone’s soul. How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.

Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by elders of his Thembu tribe - Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century. Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement - a movement that at its start held little prospect of success. Like King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice. He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War. Emerging from prison, without force of arms, he would - like Lincoln - hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. Like America’s founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations - a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power.

Given the sweep of his life, and the adoration that he so rightly earned, it is tempting then to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men. But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. Instead, he insisted on sharing with us his doubts and fears; his miscalculations along with his victories. “I’m not a saint,” he said, “unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”

It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection - because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried - that we loved him so. He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood - a son and husband, a father and a friend. That is why we learned so much from him; that is why we can learn from him still. For nothing he achieved was inevitable. In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness; persistence and faith. He tells us what’s possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well.

Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals. Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited, “a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness” from his father. Certainly he shared with millions of black and colored South Africans the anger born of, “a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments…a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people.”

But like other early giants of the ANC - the Sisulus and Tambos - Madiba disciplined his anger; and channeled his desire to fight into organization, and platforms, and strategies for action, so men and women could stand-up for their dignity. Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up to powerful interests and injustice carries a price. “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination,” he said at his 1964 trial. “I’ve cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those you agree with, but those who you don’t. He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper’s bullet. He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and passion, but also his training as an advocate. He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement. And he learned the language and customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depended upon his.

Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough; no matter how right, they must be chiseled into laws and institutions. He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance and history. On core principles he was unyielding, which is why he could rebuff offers of conditional release, reminding the Apartheid regime that, “prisoners cannot enter into contracts.” But as he showed in painstaking negotiations to transfer power and draft new laws, he was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal. And because he was not only a leader of a movement, but a skillful politician, the Constitution that emerged was worthy of this multiracial democracy; true to his vision of laws that protect minority as well as majority rights, and the precious freedoms of every South African.

Finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. There is a word in South Africa- Ubuntu - that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us. We can never know how much of this was innate in him, or how much of was shaped and burnished in a dark, solitary cell. But we remember the gestures, large and small - introducing his jailors as honored guests at his inauguration; taking the pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS - that revealed the depth of his empathy and understanding. He not only embodied Ubuntu; he taught millions to find that truth within themselves. It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailor as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion, generosity and truth. He changed laws, but also hearts.

For the people of South Africa, for those he inspired around the globe - Madiba’s passing is rightly a time of mourning, and a time to celebrate his heroic life. But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time for self-reflection. With honesty, regardless of our station or circumstance, we must ask: how well have I applied his lessons in my own life?

It is a question I ask myself - as a man and as a President. We know that like South Africa, the United States had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation. As was true here, it took the sacrifice of countless people - known and unknown - to see the dawn of a new day. Michelle and I are the beneficiaries of that struggle. But in America and South Africa, and countries around the globe, we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact that our work is not done. The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality and universal franchise may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important. For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger, and disease; run-down schools, and few prospects for the future. Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and are still persecuted for what they look like, or how they worship, or who they love.

We, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace. There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us who stand on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.

The questions we face today - how to promote equality and justice; to uphold freedom and human rights; to end conflict and sectarian war - do not have easy answers. But there were no easy answers in front of that child in Qunu. Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done. South Africa shows us that is true. South Africa shows us we can change. We can choose to live in a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes. We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity.

We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. But let me say to the young people of Africa, and young people around the world - you can make his life’s work your own. Over thirty years ago, while still a student, I learned of Mandela and the struggles in this land. It stirred something in me. It woke me up to my responsibilities - to others, and to myself - and set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today. And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be better. He speaks to what is best inside us. After this great liberator is laid to rest; when we have returned to our cities and villages, and rejoined our daily routines, let us search then for his strength - for his largeness of spirit - somewhere inside ourselves. And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, or our best laid plans seem beyond our reach - think of Madiba, and the words that brought him comfort within the four walls of a cell:
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

What a great soul it was. We will miss him deeply. May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela. May God bless the people of South Africa.

Pres. Obama address video

PA’s political xmas gift

End November saw the birth of yet another political party in South Africa and in particular the Western Cape. The birth of political parties has become a trend, before an election, so what makes this one stand out.

For starters some claim it was started by Businessman aka sushi-king, Kenny Kunene and his business associate, Gayton McKenzie. They might be the resources support of this party and Kenny might have registered the party – I mean like in really get someone who will give you a catchy headline to register your party and you will definitely get more than a community newspaper covering your conference – but I doubt this is their brainchild.

I firmly believe Kenny is not the driving force behind the Patriotic Alliance. Kenny might have the money, but it is a community leader on grassroots level who can mobilize more than a hundred, even two hundred people, to attend a political gathering. Not even Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters-party (of which Kenny was first a member) could attract 50 people to its gathering in Cape Town recently (I think they were even less than ten). And JuJu is well a bigger political force than Kenny.

I have this theory in my head that the driving force behind PA is the many unhappy former Independent Democrats-members, the party started in 2003 by former PAC MP now Cape Town Executive Mayor under the banner of the Democratic Alliance, Patricia De Lille. In 2010/2011 the ID and DA decided on dual membership and while some ID-members might have joined the DA, let’s not turn a blind eye to the many who decided not to follow the leader.

Interesting or part of PA’s strategy to note the Patriotic Alliance’s Policy (launch) Conference took place the same weekend as the Independent Democrats held their last conference.

The ID will cease to exist, as it will not take part in next years General Elections and also did not take part in the 2011 Local Government Elections.

Not that my opinion matters but do I think PA can go up against a few heavyweights? If next year was a LGE, without a doubt they might have won a council or two, even three.

Taking the performance of the ID, Cope, ACDP and a few others in a General Election into consideration, it would not surprise me if PA actually won a seat in the provincial legislature, flip not even a seat in the National Assembly would surprise me. I don’t think though that they would get enough votes to govern or even be the official opposition. I don’t even think they would get a million votes. I do know though I would not ignore PA and Push Asside their bark, they appealing to a very influential group/s in the Western Cape and if their leaders in the community could get more than a hundred people to a meeting without any advertising, publicity or mentioning of PA before their official launch, they likely to double those numbers now.

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-12-01-patriotic-alliance-plan-green-revolution

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