Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma on Saturday berated politicians who might use Nelson Mandela's death to try and settle scores.
“Comrades, I would be very happy that as we mourn and celebrate Madiba, we do not abuse his name,” he said at the Waterkloof Air Force Base, in Pretoria.
We should not think that Madiba's passing is a time for settling scores,” Zuma said at an ANC ceremony before Mandela's body would be flown to the Eastern Cape for his state funeral on Sunday.
“(If you try settle scores), it means you do not understand Madiba and you will never understand him, because he was a man of honesty.”
Zuma said Mandela was great because he was a thinker and a doer.
“He (Mandela) combined two things that are not easy to do: to combine theory and practice.”
This week eNCA news reported that former president Thabo Mbeki suggested South Africa needed better leadership after Mandela.
“Exactly because we are dealing with this more complex struggle, we need to raise the level of the quality of leadership,” Mbeki told a memorial service for Mandela at the Calvary Church, in Midrand, on Wednesday night.
“To accelerate this progress that we need, we'll come back to this matter about the quality of leadership,” Mbeki said.
Mandela died last Thursday at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, at the age of 95. - Sapa