Nelson Mandela — A Villain Portrayed As A Hero
By P Atkinson

Nelson Mandela is a South African citizen who chose to place his private resentment of the existing Apartheid regime above the welfare of his country. He actively campaigned to replace a regime that gave order and wealth, with a regime that could only ever supply anarchy and poverty. But for helping to convert a prosperous, safe and stable community into an impoverished, unstable and dangerous community (see Letter from South Africa), he has won international plaudits, including the Nobel peace prize awarded in Oslo in 1993.

The undeniable and predictable result of overturning the Apartheid regime are ignored, as he is enthusiastically praised (circa late 1990s) in the Australian, English and American media. Even a letter to The Times in London, by the widow of the author of the anti-apartheid book "Cry, My Beloved Country", did not alter this blind adulation. Her sincere confession that social conditions had deteriorated so much that the sins of the previous Apartheid regime now seemed trivial, failed to shake the delusion that Nelson Mandela was a hero whose sacrifice had won a better life for South Africans.

Shakespeare's play "King Lear" is a reminder that power cannot be safely abdicated, so the loss of power by the white people in Africa must endanger all white lives on that continent: a lesson graphically demonstrated by the fate of the white Rhodesian farmers being robbed and murdered with impunity by black savages (circa 2000). Which makes the abolition of Apartheid the first step in the inevitable destruction of the white population of South Africa.

Typical Plaudits For Mandela — 1999

From Time Inc:

Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multi-racial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

From BBC news world UK international foreign british online service Original Publication Date:1998/07/16

The world's most famous prisoner-turned-international hero — Nelson Mandela — is celebrating his 80th birthday this week. Below is a look back at some of the landmarks in his life:

• Born in 1918 in South Africa's Eastern Cape, the son of a tribal chief.
• Formed the Youth League of the African National Congress with two close friends, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu, in 1944.
• Charged with high treason along with 155 other political activists in 1956, eventually acquitted five years later.
• Went underground to form the ANC military wing after the ANC was outlawed following the 1960 Sharpeville massacre.
• Captured by police after more than a year on the run, convicted of sabotage and treason in June 1964 and sentenced to life in prison, initially on Robben Island.
• Winnie Mandela, whom he married in 1958, campaigned for years for her husband's release.
• An international campaign is launched calling for his release.
• Freed from jail in 1990 after 27 years of imprisonment.
• Marriage to Winnie eventually came to an end when she was convicted on charges of kidnapping and accessory to assault.
• Emerged as president after a landslide win in South Africa's first multi-racial elections in 1994.
• South Africa wins the Rugby Union World Cup in 1995, and Nelson Mandela is publicly presented with a team jersey from the South African captain, symbolising a mood of unity between black and white.
• Gives up Presidency of ANC to his nominated successor, Thabo Mbeki, in 1997.