Nelson Mandela's birthday..shod we be thanking someone else also?

Question

I know that we are happy for the fact that Mandela brought about the end to appartiate in Shouth Africa, but as much as I love the man, I really do not think it would have been possible if De Clerk didn't do the honorable thing in releasing Mandela.

My question is should we also be thanking De Clerk also? He had the forsight to know that there had to be a change in South Africa and without Mandela's help, it may not have been possible.

He knew that when he went to the polls against Mandela, he would lose, but I think that this is what he wanted. There needed to be a change in South Africa, and in my opinion, De Clerk needs to be credited for the fact that he also played a part.

Don't get me wrong, I love Mandela, his strugle and life should be studied by everyone for years to come, he is a very special person and I am honoured to be around in the same era as him but I think there is also another person to thank here.

Answer 1

Sorry Sam but Mandela didn't stop apartheid. World opinion was what put an end to white rule. Mandela was just the commander of a terrorist group Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC.

Apartheid is alive and well and operating in SA today.

A black student needs a 75% pass to get into Pretoria university. An Asian needs 85% and a white student,even if he or she is from SA needs 98%. It's still there just reversed. Mandela opened his defence at his treason trial with the words " I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have 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."

Despite this he did nothing to protect the white people in SA after the fall of the government. He has never renounced violence as a political tool and has steadfastly refused to speak out against the attrocities in Zimbabwe. When pressed he delivered only the mildest rebuke to Mugabe saying that there had been leadership failures. Not exactly earth shattering is it.

What really annoys me is when people compare him to a REAL HERO FOR BLACK EMANCIPATION  the Reverend Martin Luther King jnr. Now there is a man who showed the world the difference between right and wrong. No violence, no bombings, no "M" plan terrorist cells, just a dream of equallity and respect. There was a true hero.

Answer 2

He has single-handedly destroyed any potential for South Africa to be a first-world nation ever again.

Apartheid would have eventually disappeared under de Klerk due to the realities of workforce shortages- blacks were already being trained and educated for skilled technical trades- including electrical engineering.

I know- I help set up one of their coal power plants in 1990.

Now 90,000+ black women per year are raped and never receive justice and these are the rapes that are reported.

Crime is shocking. Money and brains- both black and white- have fled never to reurn.

This never occurred under de Klerk

Mandela is a racist and a terrorist.

He and his fat thug wife should hang for his bombing campaigns and political corruption in extremis- exactly like a white should too.