"Rome was not built in a day"

As it is not in my nature to keep quiet when faced with issues related to discrimination, inequality, crude comments about the country I live in, let alone a man who sacrificed his personal life alongside many others, who I have known personally and indirectly, to allow the following comment from a certain David Cocks who commented on Sir Richard Branson's blog about "Mandela's Way" to go unanswered.  

David Cocks had this to say in his comment:

"I was living in South Africa at the time when Nelson Mandela was the chief motivator for the ANC as well as the major influence for APLA and various other anti-white organisations.  He was the force behind indescribable murders and torture carried out on innocent white people who very often were employers of black staff on farms and in other business.  Their deaths left vast numbers of black families unemployed and homeless apart from the actual brutality of the callous murders themselves.  Before slapping Madiba on the back and shaking his hand, just ask the vast majority of blacks, coloureds and indian [Indian] people still living in South Africa, (not one of the millions of new illegal immigrants who flood across the borders every day); what they really think of the 'Rainbow Nation'.  The answers may shock you."

David Cocks as a "coloured" person who inherited this classification from the past apartheid government "still living" in South Africa let me give you my opinion.  An opinion I would not have been able to give under the previous regime without possible arrest and detention, most likely without trial, torture (and as a female – rape), and possible death.

I grew up in a time when I could not sit next to a white person on the bus or train even if they were family.  I grew up in a time when most beaches were meant only for white people.  I grew up in a time when all I knew about Mandela was his name, and a name one dared not utter.  I grew up in a time when the place I lived in was declared a white area and along with my family and subsequent death of my grandmother, was forced to move to make way for white people.  I grew up in a time when friends disappeared, never to be seen again.  I grew up in a time when meetings were held under the cover of darkness by candlelight vigils because where three or more were gathered we were referred to as terrorists.  

I grew up.  Yes I grew up, because under the old regime there was no time to be a child if you were faced with a hand grenade or flying bullets being aimed at you when it should have been a ball to play.

There is a saying that goes "Rome was not built in a day" well neither was South Africa, and for us who are here, and who love our country, and its people, we will continue to build this country in the best way we can.  If we grow up too quickly we just might miss out on the many lessons there are to learn which Mandela lives by. 

If what you say about Mandela is true then in is his defence, I would like to say – he probably had a moment of "madness".  After all who spends 27 years of his life behind bars for wanting to see a better South Africa for all its people and comes out sane?  Be that as it may, his "madness" if so, was short-lived.  Personally, I do not think that what you had to say is true.  Today I live in country which is a Rainbow Nation.  It is a country which I am very proud of. 

This country could have been in so much turmoil had Mandela and the previous president FW de Klerk not sat at the same table and decided to make amends and work towards a free, democratic South Africa.

Yes we have problems.  As all babies, we have teething problems, and one day when we have a full set of teeth we will don the brightest smile.  But for now, while we Grow our Own Garden, we will continue to eradicate the "weeds" as best we can.

When next you are in South Africa David Cocks, look me up, and we can have a braai (BBQ).