Corruption in South Africa: Mandela’s trashed example

Nelson Mandela achieved a distinction — not entirely undeserved — little short of sainthood during his 95 years on this earth.

Nelson Mandela achieved a distinction — not entirely undeserved — little short of sainthood during his 95 years on this earth. Freed from almost three decades in prison unblemished by a hunger for revenge, he negotiated the bloodless winding up of South Africa’s apartheid regime and, as the country’s first black president, formed a multiracial cabinet to oversee the changes necessary to bring peace and social justice.

As the leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the post from which he stepped down 20 years ago this week, he was a modest, honest man uninterested in the trappings and symbols of power and possessed by a remarkable spirit of generosity. He set an outstanding example not only for his successors in his own country but also for post-independence parties throughout Africa.