Nelson Mandela is in the UK for the next week and given his near saint-like status in some quarters we can expect euphoric media coverage. I was interested in reading the BBC report which stresses his glowing relationship with the Queen and which trots out the mantra about his tireless “campaign around the globe for peace and an end to poverty.” Given the horrendous violence which afflicts South Africa and the genocide taking place in its neighbour Zimbabwe, is it too much to ask the BBC to ask some hard questions about the actual achievements of one of their idols? Is it not reasonable to expect the State Broadcaster review all aspects of Mr Mandela’s career – from his former days as a terrorist to his current period as a man that can do no wrong?
SAINT NELSON.
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… which reminds me that just as black South Africans are hunting down and murdering refugees from Zimbabwe as we speak in South Africa, generally speaking Africans and West Indians don’t get on in the UK.
In terms of terrorism, the ANC were not innocents. But there were other liberation groups that were more extreme. In fairness there was a great deal of state terrorism from the National Party government. I’ve extracted terrorist attacks from a historical reference, from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It’s quite comprehensive and so I found it interesting that a terrorist attack on a games arcade in central Johannesburg in which three people were killed, and the aftermath of which I witnessed, was not mentioned:
http://www.polity.org.za/polity/govdocs/commissions/1998/trc/3chap1.htm
[1960] The African Resistance Movement (ARM) is formed by mainly young radical whites and launches a sabotage campaign.
[1964] ARM member, John Harris, bombs Johannesburg station in July. A woman is killed and twenty-three people injured. (Harris is hanged at Pretoria Central Prison in April 1965).
1983 A car bomb explodes outside the South African Air Force headquarters on Church Street, Pretoria on 20 May. Nineteen people are killed and 200 injured. Two MK operatives die in the attack.
1984 Mutinies by frustrated MK soldiers at ANC camps Viana and Pango are crushed in early 1984, resulting in the execution of seven mutineers and the imprisonment of others at Quatro rehabilitation camp.
[1985] Mandela and other political prisoners are offered release in January if they renounce violence. Most refuse.
[1985] Widespread attacks begin on collaborators, including police and community councillors, by residents in both urban and rural areas across the country. These killings result in numerous common purpose trials and many death sentences for those convicted.
[1985] MK members blow up the Umtata fuel depot, water pipelines and an electricity sub-station in June. A nightly curfew is subsequently imposed.
[1985] A second National Consultative (Kabwe) Conference of the ANC is held in Zambia in June, marking a turning point in the ANC s approach to the struggle in South Africa. The distinction between hard and soft targets starts to be blurred and a desire to take the struggle to the white areas is expressed.
[1985] The first series of ANC landmine attacks in November leads to several deaths and injuries in the Northern and Eastern Transvaal rural areas. By the time the ANC ceases landmine operations, between twenty and forty people have died in over thirty landmine explosions.
[1985] In the Amanzimtoti bombing, five people are killed and over sixty injured in an explosion at an Amanzimtoti shopping centre in December. MK operative, Sibusiso Andrew Zondo, is convicted for the bombing and executed in September 1986.
[1986] In what becomes known as the Magoo s Bar bombing, three people die and sixty-nine are injured when a car bomb explodes at Durban s Parade Hotel on 14 June. Robert McBride is sentenced to death for the bombing; his sentence is later commuted to life imprisonment.
[1988] A one-month stay of execution is granted in March, in the Pretoria Supreme Court to six Sharpville residents, sentenced to death for being part of a crowd that killed a black councillor. Sentences are later commuted to life imprisonment following a local and international outcry against their common purpose conviction.
Part 2 below
Contd:
[1990] The Pretoria Minute is signed by the ANC and the government in August. The ANC suspends the armed struggle.
[1990] Nelson Mandela is released on 11 February.
[1991] Winnie Mandela is found guilty in May of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault after the fact.
[1992] APLA [Azanian People’s Liberation Army] attacks the King William s Town golf club in the Eastern Cape in October, killing four and injuring seventeen. The first major attack by APLA, it is followed by other attacks resulting in at least ten deaths in Eastern Cape bars, restaurants and churches.
[1992] APLA continues armed attacks, including the killing of white farmers.
1993 An APLA commander declares 1993 The Year of the Great Storm . APLA operatives carry out several attacks on restaurants, churches, farms and pubs, killing mainly white civilians. In March, APLA attacks the Yellowwoods Hotel in Fort Beaufort and a Bahai church service in Mdantsane, Ciskei. On 1 May, APLA attacks the Highgate Hotel in East London, on 25 July the St James Church in Cape Town, and on 31 December the Heidelberg Tavern in Cape Town. These attacks result in multiple killings and injuries.
[1993] Winnie Mandela s conviction on kidnapping charges is upheld on appeal but her conviction on accessory to assault is overturned in June. The sentence is changed to a fine.
[1993] The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk in October.
1994 One person is killed and several injured in an APLA attack on the Crazy Beat disco in Newcastle, Natal on 14 February.
[1994] PAC president Clarence Makwetu announces the suspension of the armed struggle.
[1994] South Africa s first democratic election takes place on 27 April. The ANC wins with 62.6% of the vote, implying 252 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly. A Government of National Unity is constituted.
[1994] Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as President of South Africa on 10 May.
Problem is, 14 years after the end of apartheid, the terror continues, though it is often difficult to disentangle it from common crime, which is at horrendous levels. The killing of white farmers continues as the unspoken movement to drive whites off the land. It is terrorism with a political motive. In fact, in terms of sheer numbers of white farmers murdered by black gangs, it’s far more extreme than Zimbabwe.
bryan – lets be fair here… you cant blame Mandela for what people did AFTER apartheid.
if anything, he prevented a Yugoslavia style meltdown.
ok, your points on current violence levels in SA are correct. but you cant blame a 90 year old man for what Tabo Mbeki is fubaring…
to be honest – despite all the leftist syncopancy and fawning over the man, i cant help but admire the guy – after so long in jail he could so easily have written his own “mein kampf”
I’m not blaming him for Mbeki’s failures, only for his own while he was undisputed ANC leader and later South African president.