Madiba, a person with an immense capacity for self-control

At the beginning of July last year the Nelson Mandela Foundation and its sister organisations called for the creation of an official Mandela Day to be celebrated annually on 18th July, the birthday of Madiba.

In recognition of the 67 years since 1942 that Mandela has been making an imprint on the world, the Mandela Day campaign called for people around the world to commit 67 minutes of their time on 18th July each year to "make an imprint and help change the world around them". At the time of the call Madiba expressed the hope that such a day "can serve to bring together people around the world to fight poverty and promote peace and reconciliation".

President Zuma immediately committed his support for the campaign. On the 11th July 2009 the United Nations General Assembly, on which 192 countries are represented, adopted a proposal sponsored by the SA Government declaring 18th July to be observed annually around the world as the "Nelson Mandela International Day" in recognition of Madiba's contribution to peace and freedom.

Mandela Day is now fixed to our calendars and the call for 67 minutes of one's time on Mandela's birthday to help us change the world around us into a better place gathers momentum. To borrow a phrase from Zwelinzima Vavi, what are you doing to make it into a tsunami?

After the successful and magnificent hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup is there anyone here who doubts that we will not be able to turn this momentum into a tsunami tidal wave for the eradication of poverty and for peace? Together we can do it! Let us not allow ourselves to get away with participation in this discussion as our 67 minutes contribution! Let's do things that will make a difference.

Let us put our heads together to understand what is it about Madiba that has enabled him to win over the hearts and minds of millions around the world - including millions who have never seen him, but are united across borders, across racial, religious, cultural, gender and age divides, to hold him in such deep admiration and love.

I am reminded of an anecdote that Madiba has often recalled. He was being questioned by a little girl. She wanted to know how long he had been in prison. Mandela replied: "A long time". She asked him" How old are you? Mandela replied "Very old". To which the little girl retorted: "You are not only ugly. You are also stupid" Let us, as we seek to understand ourselves and the man, hang on to some of the sweet innocence of that little girl.

Consider this real life incident: Until about March/April 1965 those of us incarcerated in the isolation section of Robben Island prison, were made to work in the quadrangle breaking large chunks of stone into pebbles using four-pound hammers. The authorities had put about six common law prisoners among us - hardened gangsters put there to harass and terrorise us. One of them was called Bogart. His scarred face portrayed brutality and brutalisation.

One day a warder assaulted Bogart in our presence. Madiba felt we should not allow this to happen. Some among us whispered to Madiba that we should not get involved in a matter between a warder and such a hardened prisoner as Bogart. Prisoners like Bogart were unreliable and served as the warders' pimps. But Madiba would have none of it and demanded to see the officer in charge in order to lay a complaint.

Later that day Madiba was taken to the front office. He told the officer what had happened. The officer reminded Mandela that he was a prisoner and only allowed to complain about treatment meted out to him and not other prisoners. Madiba maintained that the assault on Bogart that he had witnessed meant that next time it could happen to him. Therefore he had a right to complain and bring such assaults to a halt.

The officer then called in Bogart. He asked Bogart whether he had been assaulted. With a straight face, he replied that he had not been assaulted. The officer then warned never to bring false complaints as the prison regulations provided a punishment of up to six lashes for a prisoner who lays a false complaint. The authorities had bought Bogart's denial with a packet of tobacco!

When Madiba returned many of us ragged him: We told you not to take up the matter. Did you not realise that common law prisoner like Bogart cannot be trusted? It is stupid of us to court unnecessary difficulties for ourselves by taking up their cause. Madiba said it was our duty to take up the case on any prisoner being assaulted. It did not matter who the prisoner was and whether the prisoner was a pimp or not. For Madiba, an injustice was an injustice.

Many people often remark on how many former prisoners who have undergone unspeakable torture and harsh treatment in apartheid's prisons, and how Mandela in particular shows no bitterness. Truth, it is said, is better than fiction. Let us hear former President Clinton, who writes:

"Mandela made a grand, elegant, dignified exit from prison and it was very powerful for the world to see. But as I watched him walking downs that dusty road [on TV in the US], I wondered whether he was thinking about the last twenty-seven years, whether he was angry all over again. Later, many years later, I had a chance to ask him. I said ?Come on, you were a great man, you invited your jailers to your inauguration, and you put your pressures on the government. But tell me the truth. Weren't you really angry all over again?' And he said, ‘Yes, I was angry. And I was a little afraid. After all I've not been free in so long. But,' he said,' when I felt that anger well up inside of me I realised that if I hated them after I got outside that gate then they would still have me.' And he smiled and said, ‘I wanted to be free so I let it go.' ‘It was', concludes Clinton, ‘an astonishing moment in my life. It changed me.

There is in my view a huge difference between showing no bitterness and not being bitter. It is not just a matter of the years spent in prison. Apartheid visited on those we loved and cherished the most, a lifetime of pain. That is pain more hurtful than anything its henchmen did to any one of us personally.

But I recount Clinton because Madiba is like you and me. And because he is one of us - a human vested with the genius, generosity, foibles and vanities that characterise each of us - we respond to him in a way that embodies the possibilities in each of us.

To those who have been tempted to regard him as a saint, he has a ready response that a saint is a sinner who keeps trying. Madiba, I would argue is as much an inspirational as an aspirational role model. Aspirational, because his life beckons us with the goodness in each of us. We can, each of us in each our own ways, be a little bit of Madiba.

We live in a bewildering world. We would like to be judged by the goodness of our intentions. We like to think of ourselves as making choices based on that premise, but seldom are the consequences what we intended. Mandela's life demonstrates that life is about making choices and that we have to school ourselves to live with the consequences. In short we have to take responsibility for what we do.

Do not allow what I have been saying to make you think Madiba is all seriousness. He is possessed of a great sense of fun and much impish mischievousness. It cannot be otherwise for anyone who loves life.

Don Davis, a fellow prisoner, was passionate about draughts. And when it came to a game of draughts, Madiba and Don were inseparable - they could not resist playing each other at every opportunity. Don was a street-wise, flamboyant character and was a lay preacher. Always impatient, he would brashly and loud challenge Madiba.

Whenever it was time for Madiba to make a move, Don would demand that Madiba makes his move. Madiba would ignore him and sit calm and expressionless. Slowly Madiba's hand would hover over a piece as it he was going to move it. Then he would sharply withdraw his hand as if he had touched a red hot stove. With an exclamation of "eish!" he would revert to his expressionless demeanour.

After what seemed like an eternity his hand out snake out again, however over the board only to be sharply withdrawn again. All this would be happening while Don's eyes would be glued to the board and mesmerised by the movement of Madiba's hand. Bursting with exasperation Don would demand "Come on, Madiba! Move!" Madiba would remain immovable.

At long last Madiba would move a piece, not by sliding it across the board, but by taking hold of it in his broad fingers, lifting the piece up in the air, and bringing it down on the intended square with a firm thump and a loud exclamation "Qhuphu!" it never failed to send a jolt through Don.'

Well before the end of the match Don would be knot of exasperation and irritation. On one occasion he overturned the board and stormed off - only to return to challenge Madiba at the next opportunity, firm in the conviction that this time he would have the better of Dalibhunga.

Even in debate and discussion, Madiba was not disinclined to engage in such "wars of attrition" He would pick his adversary's weak sport and be unwavering in his attack. But no matter how ruthlessly he demolished your positions in a discussion, he never ignored them. He would mull over all the arguments, studiously assessing each days, weeks, sometimes even months later he would shift his position.

His strength is not simply to change his views but also to acknowledge his adversary when he did make the shift. Often the consequences for a leader are obligations that go far beyond those that fall on the shoulders of others.

We are familiar with the facts. He was a founder member and first Commander-in-chief of MK and a leader in the ANC. He was arrested in August 1962 and sentences to five years imprisonment. This meant that he had no knowledge and played no part in subsequent decisions and actions taken by MK. He joined the accused arrested in Rivonia in June 1963. In this case much hinged on how the court would view these subsequent acts of sabotage as well as the status of the document entitled "Operation Mayibuye".

It was an amateurish and unrealistic military plan conceived long after Mandela had been imprisoned. Under the circumstances it would have seemed sensible that others among the accused should be left to take responsibility for actions in which Mandela had played no role.

Fellow accused Rusty Bernstein captures the issue: "Nelson", he writes, "would have none of it. I am not surprised. As long as I have known him he has acted on the principle that leaders have no special privileges, but have special obligations and duties greater than those of others. He rejects any special protection and insists on his responsibilities as the titular head of MK. He will explain the ANC and its role in respect of MK, and defend them both in court. He will take the full fury of the state attack - it is the obligation that falls on a leader. He puts his argument forcefully, and everyone - lawyers and accused - concede he is right."

Even when faced with the likelihood of the death penalty he did not evade his responsibilities that went with his choice to turn to the armed struggle and he did not flinch from their painful consequences.

I hope these reflections and anecdotes help you understand how and why I have described Mandela as a person with an immense capacity for self-control. In this context I once wrote that "Self-control is not self-denial. What it achieves in an unparalleled focus. Iron is iron but there is a world of difference between a blade shaped out of wrought iron and a stiletto blade fashioned from tempered steel".

Under Mandela's stewardship we set out on the path of nation-building, reconciliation and reconstruction. This three-pronged thrust into the future seems to have dissipated for a while. In the wake of the soccer world cup there is a powerful set of messages that have emerged.

First, our self-esteem has surged. As South Africans we can reach for the stars.

Secondly, in the theme of ‘unity in diversity' are encapsulated both the issues that set us apart from each other as communities and those that we share between us. During our past apartheid nurtured us to dwell on our differences. The recent upsurge of rallying behind our flag, our country, our continent and our shared humanity raise the question whether the time has not arrived when we should be placing more emphasis on the issues that unite us.

Thirdly, the world is beginning to look at us and our continent, not so much for our lack of capacity, but for our capacity to do things in a way that makes everyone proud. Conditions have emerged where the world wants to do business with us.

Let our unity as a people, as a continent and as the people of the world have a single-minded focus: the eradication of poverty. Poverty is the source of instability. It is also the greatest affront our dignity and our humanity.

It is time for us to rise to Madiba's challenge when he says: ‘It's in your hands.' Let us face the future together, for working together we can do more.

Heita, Madiba! Heita!

Mac Maharaj is a Special Advisor to President Jacob Zuma and was the Minister of Transport in President Nelson Mandela's cabinet. This article first appeared in ANC Today, the weekly online newsletter of the African National Congress.

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter