Quote:
Originally Posted by Wynonie Harris
If the Nazis had invaded Britain in 1940, doubtless a British Resistance movement would have been sprung up. They would've planted bombs, killing Germans and probably a few Brits as well. What would they have been?...terrorists?...or freedom fighters?
What was Mandela supposed to do? Go cap-in-hand to the government and say "please, Mr De Clerk, stop this nasty apartheid system and let us be equal to you?" Minority government don't just stand aside and say, "after you, old boy". It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to wrest power from them. Innocents shouldn't have been killed in the process, but, then again, we've killed plenty of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe we're terrorists, too.
And, yes, the post-apartheid government has not lived up to its promise - government don't usually - but I'll bet the majority in SA wouldn't want to go back to the old regime.
Mandela was a great man - flawed as are many great men - but a great man nonetheless.
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I think you will find that the original inhabitants of SA were not the Xhosa, who are the main strength of the ANC. The original inhabitants, the
Khoikhoi and
San peoples were persecuted and slaughtered by the invading tribes from the North, the Bantu, but particularly the Xhosa.
Mandela promised many things in his Rainbow Nation, as do his successors, but achievements lack far behind the promises.