ON THE CONTRARY
TONY LEON: Mandela put SA first. The same can’t be said of Jacob Zuma
The candidates who today jostle for the tarnished Zuma crown should remember what happened to the once mighty National Party
Nelson Mandela was born last week 99 years ago, when the telegraph was the means of mass communication. But much of the commemoration of his July 18 birthday was in cyberspace across social media platforms.
One such meme sent to me on the birthday, appropriately encased in a black border, bore the legend: “It’s little use having 1 Mandela day and 364 Zuma days.”
Nelson Mandela was born last week 99 years ago, when the telegraph was the means of mass communication. But much of the commemoration of his July 18 birthday was in cyberspace across social media platforms. One such meme sent to me on the birthday, appropriately encased in a black border, bore the legend: “It’s little use having 1 Mandela day and 364 Zuma days.” Undeterred by any such unflattering comparisons – and perhaps providing the nod which vice accords to virtue — Jacob Zuma enthused on but one aspect of Mandela’s storied life. Our president reminded his audience in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, that opponents ofthe ANC “wanted to separate Mandela from his organisation. But Madiba loved his organisation and, if you knew that, you would not say that you loved Madiba but not his organisation.” Warming to his theme of the indissolubility of the icon from the tarnished party banner which Zuma now holds aloft, he warned: “Even some racist and most backward and reactionary formations c...
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