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Dear Leadership readers
Thank you for visiting Leadership online. Our magazine website is still under construction and therefore a work in progress, so please be patient with us. Leadership online shall shortly offer readers an interactive site continually updated with cutting-edge features and breaking stories.
Following the wonderful coverage of our June special tribute edition for Madiba's 90th birthday in the Sunday Times on the 13th of July, we felt it was imperative that we use the opportunity to allow those of you who missed out on the June edition to read the tributes online. Click on 'June 2008' to read them.
Leadership magazine was blessed to receive personal tributes and birthday wishes to President Mandela from the top dignitaries and personalities from around the globe. These include Barack Obama, Tony Blair, Albertina Sisulu, Al Gore, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, to name but a few.
100% of the proceeds from the book sales of Leadership's June edition are being donated to the Nelson Mandela Childrens Fund, so if any individuals/corporations would like to receive copies please call Gavin van der Merwe on 021-6573800 to place your orders.
Thank you.
Editors Note from the tribute edition
Indabeseta nkosi
“If there is one thing I will fight you for – it is my respect”
So said Rohlihlahla Nelson Mandela to a prison guard who was leading him to the dock at the Rivonia trail of 1964.
The guard was pushing him forward and at Mandela’s warning, the guard backed down and shied away.
I recall thinking that this stand-off would surely become something epic. I remember reading it and smiling as if I were reading about my comic-book hero.
I thought the entire ‘screenplay’ worthy of Oscar-movie status. The hero fights for his people, only to be imprisoned for 27 years by the baddies. He gets treated like dirt but never dives into the mud to join them. Then ‘The Robben Island Secret Seven’ turned up the heat from inside and the baddies became vulnerable on the outside.
‘Out of nowhere’ Mandela arrived from “The Island” shaking his fist triumphantly in the air and saving the day. His hands spread a rainbow across the sky as the people rejoiced in their new found-freedom. A new land, a new Constitution, a new flag and a new combined multi-racial tribe.
It may sound like I am being cynical or farcical but in fact am not, that is honestly how much of a profound effect the man had on me. He still has that effect on me, and so many people the world over. He has that power – ask anyone who has seen him embrace a crowd with the “Madiba Jive’- it would make you feel anything is possible.
I will never forget watching his inauguration with my gogo, Gladys nDlazi.
Gogo, who lived and loved me like her own for most of our lives Gogo, who taught me to stick-fight and speak Zulu. Gogo, who had to be hidden by my mother when the pass people came by until her papers eventually came through. On voting day I remember pushing her past people to the front of an endless queue because older people had preference. It was probably the first time it had ever happened to gogo and how she smiled when she voted. How she laughed with joy and lifted me into the air as if I were a mere infant.
South Africa DID become the rainbow nation. I felt proud to be in a country with 11 official languages and one official anthem – I still do, despite everything we may find to complain about. But right now is not that time – Madiba is turning 90.
Mandela has crossed the boundaries of gender, race, religion and age. He has done so in a society that was once more polarised than most others – one the world expected to explode along racial and ethical lines. That it did not was largely due to this extraordinary man and his unique leadership style. Madiba’s influence transforms ordinary people, events and actions into the extraordinary.
At the end of the day, he turned out to be something better than a comic-book hero; he turned out to be a man who has managed to inspire his people and the rest of the world through human actions. That gives us a lot to celebrate.
Thank you Madiba and Happy Birthday Tata.
Robbie Stammers
Editor: Leadership magazine
