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| Floral tributes to former president Nelson Mandela, pile up beneath a statue of Mandela on Mandela Square at Sandton City, in Johannesburg Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. Mandela died Thursday at his Johannesburg home after a long illness. He was 95. |
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- What next for South Africa?
This
racially charged country that, on Nelson Mandela's watch, inspired the
world by embracing reconciliation in all-race elections in 1994 is again
in the global spotlight after the loss of such a towering historical
figure. It is a time not just for grief and gratitude, but also a
clear-eyed assessment of national strengths and shortcomings in a future
without a man who was a guide and comfort to so many.
"It's
a new beginning," said Kyle Redford, one of many outside the home of
the anti-apartheid leader who became the nation's first black president.
"The loss of a legend is going to force us to come together once
again."
He acknowledged that there is a "sense of what next: Where do we go? What do we do? And how do we do it?"
Mandela's
resolve rubbed off on many of his compatriots, though such conviction
is tempered by the reality that his vision of a "rainbow nation" failed,
almost inevitably, to meet the heady expectations propelling the
country two decades ago. Peaceful elections and relatively harmonious
race relations define today's South Africa; so do crime, corruption and
economic inequality.
Mandela remained a
powerful symbol in the hopeful, uncharted period after apartheid, even
when he left the presidency, retired from public life and shuttled in
and out of hospitals as a protracted illness eroded his once-robust
frame. He became a moral anchor, so entwined with the national identity
that some jittery South Africans wondered whether the country would
slide into chaos after his death.
"Does it
spell doomsday and disaster for us?" retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu
asked rhetorically Friday before declaring that no, the country will not
disintegrate.
"The sun will rise tomorrow and
the next day and the next," said Tutu, who like Mandela won the Nobel
Peace Prize for fighting apartheid and promoting reconciliation. "It may
not appear as bright as yesterday, but life will carry on."
A
series of violent events since last year intensified worries over the
state of the nation. The August 2012 shooting deaths of 34 striking
miners by police at the Marikana platinum mine recalled, for some South
Africans, state killings under apartheid. In February, a Mozambican taxi
driver was dragged from a South African police vehicle and later died
in a jail cell.
At the same time, tourism
surged. Despite labor strife and credit-rating downgrades, resource-rich
South Africa hosted Brazil, Russia, India and China at the "BRICS"
summit in March. It has the biggest economy in Africa and aspires to
continental leadership.
Mandela's death will
not destabilize race relations in the country, contrary to some fears,
according to the South African Institute of Race Relations.
"For
many years now, South Africans have got along with one another largely
peacefully without Mr. Mandela having been active in the political
sphere," Lerato Moloi, the institute's head of research, said. "In fact,
Mr. Mandela's passing may be cause for many to reflect on the
remarkably peaceful and swift racial integration of many parts of
society, including schools, suburbs, universities, and workplaces."
Moloi
said in a statement: "Although some of this had started to occur before
1994, as a symbol of racial reconciliation and forgiveness Mr. Mandela
will be viewed by many as having played a pivotal role in creating such a
society."
Mandela's life epitomized the fight
for freedom and equality, said Human Rights Watch. It pointed out that
South Africa's education and health sectors are inadequate and the
country remains divided by racial separation and deep economic
inequality.
"Almost two decades into its
democracy, South Africa is not the country that Mandela had said he
hoped it would become," the group said.
President
Jacob Zuma evoked the idea of the 95-year-old Mandela as a beacon for
the ages when he announced his death on Thursday night.
South
Africans, Zuma said, must be determined "to live as Madiba has lived,
to strive as Madiba has strived and to not rest until we have realized
his vision of a truly united South Africa, a peaceful and prosperous
Africa, and a better world."
Mandela, also
known by his clan name Madiba, admitted to weakness and failings, yet
rose to greatness in a way that no contemporary or successor could
match.
Zuma, for example, has credentials as
an anti-apartheid activist who was imprisoned with Mandela. But he and
the ruling African National Congress, once led by Mandela, have been
dogged by corruption allegations that have eroded support for the
government. In the days before Mandela's death, South African media were
filled with reports on the alleged lavish use of state funds for
construction at Zuma's family compound.
The
scene outside Mandela's house embodied the mixed picture in South
Africa, where political sparring between the ruling party and the
opposition has sharpened ahead of national elections next year, the 20th
anniversary of the pivotal vote in which Mandela became president.
Mourners
outside the home mingled in an inclusive, celebratory atmosphere that
prompted the Rev. Inigo Alvarez, a Catholic priest, to declare: "Now we
experience what is South Africa, all kinds of people, all kinds of
regions."
Yet ANC activists in yellow
jumpsuits pasted posters on the perimeter walls of the Mandela compound
and handed out leaflets presenting the party as the heir to his
tradition. In death, Mandela was still drawn into politics.
