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Yorkshire Post, UK
December 10, 2013 Tuesday
James Commey: Love was the key to a complex man in a complex land
PERHAPS the finest illustration of Nelson Mandela the man came during
his presidency. In 1995, he invited Percy Yutar for lunch. The
significance? Yutar was the man who prosecuted him in the infamous
Rivonia Trial of 1963. It was that trial that sent Mandela to prison
for 27 years.
As an Armenian Jew, Yutar had himself suffered anti-Semitism at the
hands of the Afrikaners. For that reason he remained for a while a
junior state prosecutor and was forbidden from joining the attorney
general's office in Cape Town.
Now, as deputy attorney general of the Transvaal province, he was
eager to please his bosses at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria.
In cross-examination of the defendants, he was relentless and Mandela
was convicted. Yutar insisted on the death penalty. Mandela declared
that he was prepared to die for the ideal of equality. It was not to
be. Judge President Quartus de Wet found a technicality to deviate
from the recommended sentence of death.
Some say he did not want to make Mandela a martyr, but the judge knew
that the ANC leader did not deserve to die. He sentenced him to life
imprisonment. The loophole was that Mandela had been charged with
sabotage instead of high treason. The imponderable remains: what would
have happened to Mandela and his legacy if he had been hanged?
Back to Mandela. After his release from prison 27 years later, this
was not the time for winners and losers. He understood Yutar's
position. After a kosher lunch he held his hands like lawyers do and
said: "You were only doing your job." Mandela was the ultimate
peacemaker. And blessed are the peacemakers.
At his presidential inauguration in May 1994, his prison guard was
invited as a VIP guest. He subsequently had tea with Betsie Verwoerd,
the wife of the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd.
In a world of political pettiness, and factionalism, he captured the
global imagination. And when he walked into a rugby stadium wearing
the Springbok rugby jersey of the captain at rugby union World Cup
final in 1995, the conversion of his arch-enemies was complete. They
chanted "Nelson, Nelson, Nelson".
Mandela was an idealist, a romantic and a pragmatist all rolled into
one. And yet he simply wanted to be like everybody. He wanted no
personal glorification but to be judged by his ideals of freedom and
justice - a timeless universal ideal. He once said: "I don't think
there is much history that can be said about me. I just want to be
remembered as part of that collective."
He also said "what counts in life is not the mere fact that we have
lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that
will determine the significance of the life we lead".
He had that elusive quality that is uncommon: an effusive generosity
of spirit. He was a father, lover, fighter, politician, peacemaker,
everyman.
That is why the majority of white South Africans embraced him - and
his changes - on his journey from uncompromising revolutionary to
unifier. They believed. He saved them from a prison house and it was
freedom. But whether it was justice is still being debated.
Prior to the first multi-racial elections in April 1994, there was
tension and extreme violence perpetrated by various formations, but
whites and blacks walked the streets of Johannesburg without
animosity. It is also to the credit of the black population that they
agreed to see beyond hatred and revenge. South Africa is a complex and
remarkable country.
In his latter years Mandela discussed with his son-in-law, Dr Kwame
Amuah, the prospect of death. Mandela said: "How do you write about
death when you have not experienced it? Rather write about love,
because it is something we all experience." Love was the compass that
gave direction to his project.
Nelson Mandela is said by many to have been in the greatest figure of
the 20th century. As he now lies in state ahead of his funeral on
Sunday, the world - and South Africa in particular - cannot thank him
enough.
*James Commey is a writer and lawyer from South Africa.
December 10, 2013 Tuesday
James Commey: Love was the key to a complex man in a complex land
PERHAPS the finest illustration of Nelson Mandela the man came during
his presidency. In 1995, he invited Percy Yutar for lunch. The
significance? Yutar was the man who prosecuted him in the infamous
Rivonia Trial of 1963. It was that trial that sent Mandela to prison
for 27 years.
As an Armenian Jew, Yutar had himself suffered anti-Semitism at the
hands of the Afrikaners. For that reason he remained for a while a
junior state prosecutor and was forbidden from joining the attorney
general's office in Cape Town.
Now, as deputy attorney general of the Transvaal province, he was
eager to please his bosses at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria.
In cross-examination of the defendants, he was relentless and Mandela
was convicted. Yutar insisted on the death penalty. Mandela declared
that he was prepared to die for the ideal of equality. It was not to
be. Judge President Quartus de Wet found a technicality to deviate
from the recommended sentence of death.
Some say he did not want to make Mandela a martyr, but the judge knew
that the ANC leader did not deserve to die. He sentenced him to life
imprisonment. The loophole was that Mandela had been charged with
sabotage instead of high treason. The imponderable remains: what would
have happened to Mandela and his legacy if he had been hanged?
Back to Mandela. After his release from prison 27 years later, this
was not the time for winners and losers. He understood Yutar's
position. After a kosher lunch he held his hands like lawyers do and
said: "You were only doing your job." Mandela was the ultimate
peacemaker. And blessed are the peacemakers.
At his presidential inauguration in May 1994, his prison guard was
invited as a VIP guest. He subsequently had tea with Betsie Verwoerd,
the wife of the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd.
In a world of political pettiness, and factionalism, he captured the
global imagination. And when he walked into a rugby stadium wearing
the Springbok rugby jersey of the captain at rugby union World Cup
final in 1995, the conversion of his arch-enemies was complete. They
chanted "Nelson, Nelson, Nelson".
Mandela was an idealist, a romantic and a pragmatist all rolled into
one. And yet he simply wanted to be like everybody. He wanted no
personal glorification but to be judged by his ideals of freedom and
justice - a timeless universal ideal. He once said: "I don't think
there is much history that can be said about me. I just want to be
remembered as part of that collective."
He also said "what counts in life is not the mere fact that we have
lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that
will determine the significance of the life we lead".
He had that elusive quality that is uncommon: an effusive generosity
of spirit. He was a father, lover, fighter, politician, peacemaker,
everyman.
That is why the majority of white South Africans embraced him - and
his changes - on his journey from uncompromising revolutionary to
unifier. They believed. He saved them from a prison house and it was
freedom. But whether it was justice is still being debated.
Prior to the first multi-racial elections in April 1994, there was
tension and extreme violence perpetrated by various formations, but
whites and blacks walked the streets of Johannesburg without
animosity. It is also to the credit of the black population that they
agreed to see beyond hatred and revenge. South Africa is a complex and
remarkable country.
In his latter years Mandela discussed with his son-in-law, Dr Kwame
Amuah, the prospect of death. Mandela said: "How do you write about
death when you have not experienced it? Rather write about love,
because it is something we all experience." Love was the compass that
gave direction to his project.
Nelson Mandela is said by many to have been in the greatest figure of
the 20th century. As he now lies in state ahead of his funeral on
Sunday, the world - and South Africa in particular - cannot thank him
enough.
*James Commey is a writer and lawyer from South Africa.