Quinton Mtyala
APART from being a statesman who sought to heal South Africa’s collective wounds, Nelson Mandela should also be remembered as someone who cared dearly for the welfare of South Africa’s children.
Mandela’s grandson, Chief Mandla Mandela, says Madiba’s love for children stemmed from his personal pain of not being able to raise his own children.
“He always used to say to us as a family that the biggest sacrifice he made for the Struggle for liberation was his family. He wished that he could have been around, particularly to see his own kids grow up,” said Mandla.
He says Madiba wanted to pass on the family values and traditions he had been raised with in the rural Eastern Cape to his children.
He also insisted that his children take up tertiary education, and the younger Mandela recounts how Madiba insisted that his now deceased son, Makgatho Mandela, take up law studies.
“After his release, he insisted on my father going to study law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal,” said Mandla.
And when Makgatho went off to study, Madiba took in his grandchildren Mandla and Ndaba at his house in Houghton, Johannesburg.
“It was about him being able to have an opportunity of being with grandchildren in his household, and filling that gap… that real love stems from that,” said Mandla.
The losses of his mother, Noqaphi Nosekeni, and his eldest son Thembekile (in a motorcycle accident) while he was in prison on Robben Island were some of the most painful experiences in his life.
Years later he would recount to his family that he wished he could have done more for them.
“He would always say that he takes responsibility for the challenges that the family might have found themselves in in his absence.”
Once he was released from prison and created the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund in 1995, Mandla says his grandfather went “all out” to bestow love and caring on the future generations.
He recounts how his grandfather attended a function in Cape Town on a cold winter’s night.
“When he came out he saw a bunch of streetkids hanging around on the streets. When they saw him they ran to him, saying ‘Madiba, Madiba why do you love us so much?’ ”
Mandla said his grandfather was shocked that ordinary kids who lived on the streets looked up to him.
Madiba started the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund with his personal salary as state president, an act which showed his commitment and sincerity to future generations of South Africans.
“The biggest lesson Madiba taught me was that of public service. He committed seven years to selfless service to humanity.
“That was instilled upon us, as his family, to continue serving our community and the greater society at large,” said Mandla.
“I make my small contribution as a member of Parliament and a traditional leader to change the ordinary lives of kids in our rural community, who are living without basic amenities.”
He said the greatest thing South Africans could do in the absence of Madiba was to pick up the baton where he left it, by being of service.
“There is a tendency of people focusing on self-enrichment and neglecting the communities that they live in.
“I would like to say to South Africans, let us change the communities we live in, let us work and service the communities … that would best serve Madiba’s legacy.”
Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund chief executive Sibongile Mkhabela, who has been with the fund since 1999, said Madiba strategically positioned the issues of children.
“The tendency is to do charitable good without systemic change. But because he was such a strategic thinker there are simple things he kept on insisting on,” said Mkhabela.
Every year on his birthday, he insisted that the fund host a party for children to celebrate all the kids in South Africa.
“But as he did that, allowing children to play on his birthday, he would pick them up and tell them stories. At the same time he would also have more serious conversations with younger people, between 12 and 20 years old, over issues they faced in South Africa.”
Mkhabela said Mandela was very inclusive and would always tell her the fund should work with all the children of South Africa.
“Not only poor children, not only black children, but all our children. It’s important that they come together, that they share together on his birthday.
“He would walk in and look around to see that we’re well represented and then, of course, say that ‘we don’t work for children, we work with children, so we want to hear their voices’.
“So when he spent time chatting with them in the boardroom, it was about him recognising them as thinking human beings who were capable of advising him, telling him how the organisation should work,” said Mkhabela.
And Madiba would hold her to account to see the suggestions from the young people were being implemented by the board of trustees at the fund.
“A few months later I would get a call from Madiba saying the children had said one, two, three and ‘I just want to check how far you are’… There was clear accountability,” said Mkhabela.