Mandela, at 87, emphasises message over man

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s Nelson Mandela turned 87 on Monday, an increasingly fragile icon whose moral message nevertheless grows louder with each passing year.

Unlike earlier birthdays, which saw the Nobel laureate party with film stars, royalty and adoring children, this anniversary spotlighted Mandela’s political legacy rather than his celebrity allure. Nelson Mandela Foundation officials and associates said the focus was firmly on ensuring Mandela’s lessons of human respect and dignity lived long beyond the man himself.”The greatest danger is that his legacy will be understood in purely mechanical or political terms, and stripped of its humaneness and humanity,” said Mac Maharaj, a former transport minister who spent 12 years as a political prisoner with Mandela in South Africa’s notorious Robben Island prison.”Mandela has his strengths and weaknesses just like all of us, but we need to understand his ability to control himself, to see what needs to be done, and to do it.”Aides acknowledge that Mandela – the anti-apartheid hero who in 1994 became South Africa’s first black president – has slowed down considerably since announcing his official retirement from public life early last year.He appears in public gripping a cane or the arm of an assistant, and spends long periods at home with his family including his third wife Graca Machel, the widow of Mozambique’s founding President Samora Machel.”I think he’s trying to relax, he’s trying to spend more time with Mrs Machel,” said John Samuel, the Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.”He spends more time just taking it easy.”But the man who led South Africa from white domination to multi-racial democracy remains a giant in the public imagination who can still rally tens of thousands to support his messages of fighting HIV-AIDS and poverty.Known by his clan name ‘Madiba’ by his grateful countrymen, Mandela travelled to the Arctic Circle this year to support the battle against AIDS, hosting a Norwegian rock concert as part of his own ‘46664’ campaign against the epidemic named after his former apartheid prison number.He has also spoken out forcefully about the US war on Iraq and global poverty – keeping his message of justice and reconciliation in the headlines.PERSONAL AIDS TRAGEDY Associates say Mandela remains in good health for his age, but this past year has nevertheless proved challenging in both Mandela’s private and public lives.He announced in January that his eldest son Makgatho had died from HIV-AIDS at the age of 54, using his personal tragedy to once again exhort South Africans to confront an epidemic which infects an estimated five million of their countrymen, the highest toll in the world.And his public image has taken a rare knock in recent months amid a legal battle over rights to the use of the Mandela name, which local media have depicted as an unseemly struggle over money among some of his family and close associates.For most South Africans, however, Mandela remains above reproach – an increasingly mythologised figure who embodies both the country’s difficult past and hopes for the future.”There is a legacy that we need to wrap our minds and our thinking around,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, a senior member of the ruling African National Congress.”Many people in this country are beginning to deal with that.”Nampa-ReutersNelson Mandela Foundation officials and associates said the focus was firmly on ensuring Mandela’s lessons of human respect and dignity lived long beyond the man himself.”The greatest danger is that his legacy will be understood in purely mechanical or political terms, and stripped of its humaneness and humanity,” said Mac Maharaj, a former transport minister who spent 12 years as a political prisoner with Mandela in South Africa’s notorious Robben Island prison.”Mandela has his strengths and weaknesses just like all of us, but we need to understand his ability to control himself, to see what needs to be done, and to do it.”Aides acknowledge that Mandela – the anti-apartheid hero who in 1994 became South Africa’s first black president – has slowed down considerably since announcing his official retirement from public life early last year.He appears in public gripping a cane or the arm of an assistant, and spends long periods at home with his family including his third wife Graca Machel, the widow of Mozambique’s founding President Samora Machel.”I think he’s trying to relax, he’s trying to spend more time with Mrs Machel,” said John Samuel, the Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.”He spends more time just taking it easy.”But the man who led South Africa from white domination to multi-racial democracy remains a giant in the public imagination who can still rally tens of thousands to support his messages of fighting HIV-AIDS and poverty.Known by his clan name ‘Madiba’ by his grateful countrymen, Mandela travelled to the Arctic Circle this year to support the battle against AIDS, hosting a Norwegian rock concert as part of his own ‘46664’ campaign against the epidemic named after his former apartheid prison number.He has also spoken out forcefully about the US war on Iraq and global poverty – keeping his message of justice and reconciliation in the headlines.PERSONAL AIDS TRAGEDY Associates say Mandela remains in good health for his age, but this past year has nevertheless proved challenging in both Mandela’s private and public lives.He announced in January that his eldest son Makgatho had died from HIV-AIDS at the age of 54, using his personal tragedy to once again exhort South Africans to confront an epidemic which infects an estimated five million of their countrymen, the highest toll in the world.And his public image has taken a rare knock in recent months amid a legal battle over rights to the use of the Mandela name, which local media have depicted as an unseemly struggle over money among some of his family and close associates.For most South Africans, however, Mandela remains above reproach – an increasingly mythologised figure who embodies both the country’s difficult past and hopes for the future.”There is a legacy that we need to wrap our minds and our thinking around,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, a senior member of the ruling African National Congress.”Many people in this country are beginning to deal with that.”Nampa-Reuters