It has become de rigueur for celebrities from around the world to make pilgrimages to South Africa just for self-indulgent photo ops with Nelson Mandela. Nobody has lamented this trend more than I:
He’s treated more as a tourist attraction these days (like the Statue of Liberty or, perhaps more to the point, a Carnival freak worthy of being shot by Charles Eisenmann) than as an elder statesman.
(“Zuma Snubs Obama (Michelle that is),” The iPINIONS Journal, June 24, 2011)
Therefore, you might think I was crestfallen when I read yesterday that even his former ANC comrades, led by President Jacob Zuma, are commandeering photo ops with him for political gain:
As leaders from the governing African National Congress arrange themselves around Mandela for a photo opportunity, an unamused looking Mandela barely moves and never smiles.
The stunt has caused anger in South Africa where many have accused the government of parading the anti-apartheid hero on TV for political gain.
(Daily Mail, May 1, 2013)
But I determined long ago that Mandela’s successors have betrayed virtually all of the values that made the ANC’s anti-Apartheid struggle an international common cause and categorical imperative:
Rabble-rousing trade unionists (COSATU) and unreformed communists (SACP) have turned the ANC from a governing coalition into a band of pillagers. Therefore, Zuma enlisting them to intimidate his critics, like cartoonist Zapiro, should serve as a dire warning of what South Africa will become under his leadership…
But don’t take my word for it; instead, here is what no less a person than the Nobel Laureate for Literature, Nadine Gordimer, said in a May 10, 2011 BBC interview about what Zuma and the ANC are doing to South Africa:
‘The original values of the ANC are being betrayed in many areas of our social life and our political life… I maintain the right to criticize my own party. I feel it’s a duty that we who are in the ANC must say what we think when the ANC does wrong….’
(“South Africa ‘Betraying Its Values,’” The iPINIONS Journal, May 13, 2011)
Alas, I can only pray that God will spare Mandela any more of these indignities. But I’m not hopeful; not least because nobody is doing more to exploit his good name and trash his dignity than members of his own family:
I can think of no socially redeeming value in the Mandelas airing their dirty laundry on TV the way the Kardashians do. And God forbid they cast Mandela as a feature player (in Weekend-at-Bernie’s fashion) in their faux story lines to boost ratings.
(“Is Nothing Sacred? ‘Being Mandela’- the Reality-TV Show?” The iPINIONS Journal, March 18, 2013)
In fact, things are bound to get even trashier and more undignified:
Mandela is second only to Coca-Cola as a global brand.
And the battle for the rights to exploit it has turned Mandela against Mandela and his grandchildren against some of his oldest, most trusted advisers.
Even as he receives medical care at his Johannesburg home, a string of undignified money-making ventures bear the Mandela name.
(Daily Mirror, April 27, 2013)
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