“I must say, though, that Mthembu is wrong on one count. My prayers are not for Madiba’s speedy recovery. My prayers and good wishes are that he will not have a long, drawn-out death; that he will be peaceful; that he will be surrounded by loved ones and look back with satisfaction on the life he lived. He is an old, old man – one who crammed more into his active years outside of jail than most people would do in two lifetimes. He used his jail time, too, to good effect, educating himself and others, spreading messages of peace, and most importantly, working on his inner world – coming to terms with the abuse he had suffered, so that when he came out of jail, he was able to lead us all to genuine reconciliation.
What I don’t want for him is speculation, the endless watching for whether he made it through the night, the long process of going into hospital, coming back out, labouring for air. There is a reason pneumonia is known as the old man’s friend: it is quick and usually not painful. We should let him take that gift.”
“b vNow it is time for us to show him some of that same mercy. To stop staring and instead honour him quietly in our lives going forward, grant him his peace. Madiba has earned his rest. He has earned the right to sit quietly with the people he loves most in this world, and drift gently into the next one. He gave us his life in service – but we don’t even want to grant him his death. Why do we keep on wanting him to get better, just so that he can go back into hospital? Selfishly, we don’t want to let go of all he symbolises, so we are forcing him to cling to a life that he has, in all honesty, lived out.
Madiba withdrew himself many years ago, as we all know. He did not want public life anymore; what he wanted was a life, a good life, with his family. He was done fighting and wanted happiness. And that, ironically, seems to be the one thing that – for all our claimed love – we don’t want to grant him.”
Marelise van der Merwe
Mandela é provavelmente a personalidade pública viva que mais admiro. Tenho como sonho conhece-lo. Acredito que simboliza um mundo melhor, conheço, no entanto,suficientemente bem a história de Mandela para o não considerar santo, mas sei que merece todo o nosso respeito e que o deixe-mos viver este momento em privado junto com a família, viva ele mais 24h ou anos. Mandela decidiu afastar-se e essa decisão deve ser respeitada, seja pelo ANC seja pela comunicação social seja por quem for.