WHAT IS THIS HULLABALOO ABOUT THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RELEASE OF NELSON MANDELA?
There is this hullabaloo around the twentieth anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela from prison which falls on the 11th February. The media, which created this hue and cry in the first place, is abuzz with the news of this anniversary.
The South African media’s portraying of Mandela as the only person who fought for our liberation and whose release from prison is the only occasion to be celebrated is fundamentally objectionable. And I equally disprove of the Pan Africanist Congress’s leadership, members and followers to let the South African media appropriate the glorious history of the PAC and bestow it on the ANC and Nelson Mandela and relegate Robert Sobukwe, Zeph Mothopeng and Japhta Masemola to the dust bin of history and to the margins of South Africa’s fight for liberation.
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Mandela also insisted to the Apartheid authorities that if they don’t release Masemola he (Mandela) wasn’t going to go out. Six months after his release, Masemola died in a mysterious car accident. If Mandela insisted on the release of Masemola, why do the media not celebrate the anniversary of the release of Masemola every October? And why did he die six months after being released after spending 26 grueling years on the Island?
Let us also remember what Mandela wrote in his autobiography; Long Walk To Freedom. He said after his release from Robben Island, he was taken to Pollsmor prison where he was bought a suit and a pair of shoes. He started negotiating with representatives of the Apartheid government at that time. As Mothopeng aptly put it, prisoners are not free to negotiate. But here was a prisoner negotiating with his jailers. He had secret meetings with people like PW Botha and members of the previous government’s secret services. He was taken to the beach and was spotted by a former Robben Islander who knew him and was immediately whisked away by a white police officer.
This is a person whose release from prison we are supposed to celebrate more than those of people like Masemola who spent 26 straight years on Robben Island without the luxury Mandela enjoyed, including staying in a house at Victor Verster prison with access to a phone, a fax and a cook. It is from this relative luxury that he was released and we are supposed to celebrate the anniversary of that release. This colossal fraud should never be celebrated.
By Sam Ditshego
Related Article(s):
OPEN LETTER TO NELSON MANDELA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE COLLABORATION OF NELSON MANDELA AND THE WHITE SUPREMACIST AFRIKANER NATIONALIST PARTY
Thanks for bringing this on record. The usage of Mandela by the enemy is known factor by those with a dicerning eye. This must be resisted by all means necessary. We had the same furore here in the UK – and they were not averse to boast that all else has not changed much. Mandela is like their greatest weapon at halting the advancement of true liberation in SA. I am a respcter of people, especially our elders and Mandela even more so for the role he did play in our struggle. I therefore would plead with those near him to let this, our old man, see and realise just how he is being used and for him to denounce this usage before he is gone. He hould not allow this to be hos legacy for the sake of his own children, Sa and above all the continent. They use MLK in the same way now, to represent what they call Black History Month. In this his legacy is ‘giving the other cheek and the march of Christianity among the ‘blacks’ in the USA, rather than the march for absolute black liberation as he would have wanted. This tactic, using an individual to represent the majority in an ongoing unpleasant status quo is becoming a kingpin for hidden negative agendas with Africans.
PAC forever, Africans all over the world, where ever they are, must uphold the flag of the PAC and demand true freedom for Azanaia! Aluta continua.
Pardon me other readers if I sound incensed but it is a painful reality – to be taken for granted and for a fool, not as an individual, but as a people. When do we wake up and smell the coffee?
Can someone please tell me if Masemola is still alive. As a Zimbabwean, I apologise for my lack of this knowledge.
Sorry, just seen page two now – whic says Masemola died in a car accident.
Masemola died in a mysterious car accident six months after he was released from a grueling 26 years imprisonment on Robben Island nine of which were spent in solitary confinement. As I pointed out in my previous article, Mandela insisted that Masemola be released before he (Mandela) could be released. He set the agenda of his release from a house and we are expected to celebrate this farce. And Masemola’s death six months after Mandela insisted that he be released before he himself could be set free makes me suspicous and the way he treats the PAC with contempt. But the GODS OF AFRICA will avenge for MASEMOLA.