What look like South Africa without Mandela?...

Mandela has left us. And then? At a time when the world mourns the death of the great man, that laurels are to braid the icon of the struggle against apartheid, where nobody dared to utter the slightest doubt about the scope of the event that shakes the world , the question may seem provocative or indecent . It is up to historians and biographers, many even before his death, to determine which place went to " the man most revered in the world" ( George Bush ) .

In the chorus of praise , however, he should do justice to his partner for peace , Frederik de Klerk, the leader of the white minority , which was released Mandela and decided to end the apartheid system " separate racial development. " The leader of the African National Congress ( ANC) are also made ​​no difficulty sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk .

Certainly, if he had not had a partner like Mandela, stubborn and moderate, moderately but not moderate, the white president of South Africa might have not made ​​the leap to entrust power to the majority black . Was it a good idea ? The results of Nelson Mandela to power deserves it so much applause ? If the civil war was avoided , apartheid dismantled smooth (although whites still hold economic power ) , this record is mixed , tarnished by the explosion of AIDS, corruption and crime. But all this is now history questions .

" I'll call you "


The current issue that arises is what could be the political consequences of the death of the father of the " Rainbow Nation Rainbow " . At first glance, they may seem slim. The after Mandela began long ago when he retired from office in 1999 , at age 81 , after having wanted to accomplish a single term ( that some of his supporters were bitterly reproached him ) .

With the class that characterizes so as not to interfere with his successors, pretty lantern Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma sour , Mandela stood back , the mostly silent , especially on the domestic scene . The few words of modest and quiet retiree had more weight . Often asked to give its opinion , Mandela replied: " Do not call me , I'll call you."

Thus , while world leaders were embarrassed to criticize the new ANC leaders ( especially since many had not done much against apartheid ) , Nelson Mandela walked out of his reserve to denounce this that was probably the biggest scandal in the New South Africa ( which, however, did not miss ) . While the country was ravaged by AIDS, the most contaminated in the world , the new president Mbeki had adopted a crazy position , denying the link between HIV and AIDS , refusing the distribution of anti -retroviral treatment , hampering control programs against the disease , leaving the deadly epidemic killing hundreds of thousands of people.

The single output of the old man, who pointed out that it was not time to discuss medical discoveries but to win the war against the disease was bending power.

The conscience of the country ...

His few words were a sword of Damocles over the heads of the leaders of his own camp. But no doubt , Mandela was the conscience of the entire country , ensuring that nothing bad could happen . Because, for example, he was the head of the most racist little white , living proof that blacks were not all raw bloody . And for the excited and revenge "people of color " , it was a taboo .

In the minds of South Africans, the look of "national reconciliation" was a mental barrier , prohibiting racist drift. Its mode of modest family fraternal life, his happiness , was also a model for all South Africans tempted by the easy money of corruption and crime , which thrive in the country.

After wishing " not to be combined and mixed divisions that link within the ANC ," Mandela ends in 2009 , reluctantly and half-heartedly , by supporting his second successor , the unsavory Jacob Zuma, charged rape, but acquitted by the judge reprimanded for having had sex without protection with a woman he knew with HIV ( "I took a shower after ," he said in his defense ... ) .

and the planet ...

It is on the international scene and in charitable actions of its Foundation Mandela was the most active after leaving office ( peace agreement in Burundi ), although old age he refused from peacekeeping missions ( Kosovo democratic Republic of Congo). He did not hesitate either to give voice to condemn the U.S. war in Iraq, political criticism of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to whites or that of Israel against the Palestinians . In short , Mandela completed modestly obstinately what he considered its responsibilities to the end.

He is gone but it does not matter : he was not afraid to die , provided that the duty was fulfilled . At his trial , one of his lawyers was terrified him that during his long speech , he was " asking the judge the death penalty ," Mandela said : " If we leave, then we start with glory and pride. " A fellow prisoners , the follower of humor and saying " never give up" stated: " If I die and go to heaven , the first thing I ask , what is the path for the industry local ANC . "