IT is with great relief that the country learns of the clean bill of health given to President Nelson Mandela by Johannesburg’s Park Lane clinic. Rarely can a people — indeed the world — have wished for the good health and long life of an individual with as much fervour as in the case of Mandela.
That said, it is difficult to understand what the government hoped to achieve by this piece of medical grandstanding, other than to offer a testimonial to the private health sector.
It is an unfortunate fact of life — or, rather, of death — that the Grim Reaper, in addition to preying on the aged, is a furtive character who makes much use of ambush and surprise. A certificate today, even from the good doctors at the Park Lane, is no guarantee against tomorrow.
If the intention of Mandela and his advisers was to give reassurance about our tomorrows to the financial markets we would suggest that they are misunderstanding the problem, which lies in the perception that he is the only man capable of holding South Africa together. This view may be inherently racist, but it — as much as the sight of the odd ambulance calling on the presidency to tend to a security guard who has slipped on the stairs — is responsible for the panic over the president’s health.
In the absence of any copper-bottomed guarantee as to Mandela’s continued good health, the obvious solution to the problem is to demonstrate to the world that even in his absence the government of the country rests in safe hands. The way to do that is for Mandela to shift some of the responsibilities of leadership on to the shoulders of those who would lead in his place.
The most obvious candidate at the moment is Mandela’s deputy, Thabo Mbeki. There is a school of thought that Mbeki has already shown himself, in his role as presidential trouble-shooter — with his handling of matters such as the Winnie Mandela and the Allan Boesak scandals — ill-qualified for the top post. Such a judgment is premature and unfair. As Mandela himself can testify, Winnie is too much for any man to handle and anxious second-guessing of his president may well lie behind Mbeki’s other fumbles. There may, however, be others better qualified for the succession who could be tested with the exercise of power. If such candidates are not in sufficiently senior positions in government to assume such responsibilities, then they must be elevated there.
Besides, Mandela is the architect of reconciliation, a project in which he has achieved what few others could. But this take-it-on-the-chin-for-the-sake-of-peace era is drawing to an end, inevitably replaced by a period when delivery of election promises must be the first priority. This is the project of the younger generation.
Only by such determined action can we destroy the unfortunate perception which has been foisted on Mandela, through no fault of his own, that “l’etat, c’est moi.”