A-SAfricaMandela

eding in turning Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and other leaders into members of their party. This influence was theoretical and ideological, based on reading, hearsay, and revolutionary tradition. Through the years, it also became increasingly economic, in terms of financial support from parts of the communist, the socialist, and the social-democratic world — including Sweden, Norway, and India as well as the USSR. Mandela's party, the ANC, was completely pragmatic in its views of material means, however. It accepted succour and aid wherever it came from, whether from Libya (as it happens, one of Mandela's grandchildren was baptized "Gadaffi"), Iraq, diamond investors, or multinational corporations, sticking to its cause and never deviating from its course. The Sotho maxim "many rills make a big river" often was in Mandela's mind. As a matter of fact, and quite contrary to contemporary European and American views, Nelson Mandela and the ANC remained ideologically independent while their financial dependence grew. Nevertheless, as a result of this focus and political imbalance, the ANC became a pawn in great-power politics, which delayed Ma

Asmal; the Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel... all widening the arch of the rainbow government. The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, colour or sex. Photo: Anders Hallengren

acted with the cultural variety of their country and their different origins, which propelled their joint endeavours. The final outcome was the Rainbow Nation, the most multiethnic government ever formed. Successfully curbing and harnessing the indlovu ayipatha, the dangerous elephant in the shape of the apartheid regime, the rebels finally reached their goal and settled the dispute between Africans and Afrikaners. In achieving this, Mandela agitated against black domination. He did not argue for a turning back to a glorious African society of bygone times but called for a completely new kind of state, a multiethnic democracy without match, constituted by a manifold of cultures having equal rights. Thus, the ANC leadership, as reorganized when Mandela was released in 1990 and could officially take on command, consisted of a cross section of races, including seven Indians, seven "Coloureds," and seven whites. Likewise, and in harmony with this, a broad cultural and political basis marked the government of 1994. Ministers of state were blacks, whites, Indians, Coloureds, Muslims, Christians, communists, liberals, conservatives. Apart from three Indian Muslims, there were two Hindus in Mandela's government. Never had such a cabinet been seen in Africa or elsewhere. Many prominent posts were occupied by neither Afri

In conclusion, the outlook and horizon of Mandela and his sympathisers, who were to form the ideological centre of the new administration of 1994, was stamped by East and West, by

This was the realization of a political program outlined almost half a century earlier. The date can be determined with some certainty. In "The Programme of Action: Statement of Policy Adopted at the ANC Annual Conference 17 December 1949," there is hardly a trace of the future multicultural view. In The Freedom Charter, however, adopted at the Congress of the People, Kliptown, on 26 June 1955, the ideology is emerging:

The idea is explicit but not yet fully developed in Mandela's speech for the defence from the dock at the Rivonia Trial in 1963, where he empasized, "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities." In his speech in Harlem, New York, in June 1990, the recently discharged prisoner repeated these words, adding, "Death to racism! Glory to the sisterhood and brotherhood of peoples throughout the world!" The basic concept of ubuntu had by then been expanded beyond all limits of nation, race, faith and gender.

The deed and document of this ideology is the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Afri

hroughout the r

"Everyone has the right - a. to a basic education, including adult basic education; and b. to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible." Again, the Constitution of 1996 can be seen as the fulfilment of the ANC Freedom Charter of 1955:

A significant and very telling feature, however, witnessing his care for the future generations, is the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, established when President Nelson Mandela pledged one-third of his salary for five years.

In August Mandela reveals that one of his nieces and two sons of a nephew have died from AIDS. "We must encourage our relatives who are HIV-positive to disclose their status so they can be helped and attended to," he says.

 46664 HIV-AIDS awareness campaign.

hero of the antiapartheid struggle

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