A most moving article of friendship by Nelson Mandelaâs friend
By Melanie Nathan, July 19, 2013.
When I went back to South Africa in 2011, to address the issue of so called âcorrective rapeâ with the South African Government, I wanted to speak to Nelson Mandela. With his house, mere blocks from my family home, I wanted to tell him that his vision for a hate free South Africa had yet to be realized. I wanted to tell him to speak while his voice could still be heard.
I wanted to see the expression on his face when I told him that my lesbian sisters were being raped and murdered simply for who they were.I wanted to tell him that the South African Government, the party he put in power for so many years was doing nothing about crimes of hate or homophobia, after all he had insisted on a Constitution that would protect all, even LGBTI people. But I was told that he was seeing no one! It was then, in 2011 I heard that he did not have âall of his full faculties about him,â a little spoken of and well kept secret. It would not be polite to mention that in the press. So I never wrote about it.
But now the time has come when the press is indeed speaking about the Mandela family in terms of their own feud, regarding his place of burial, and it saddened me that he was no longer being protected.
Today I read this article in the Irish times written by human rights lawyer and friend of Mandela, George Bizos.
Bizos joined the South African Bar in the 50′s almost 30 years before I did. He was part of the legal team that defended Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki and Walter Sisulu, at the infamous Rivonia trial where they were sentenced to life imprisonment, but spared the death penalty.
Although it is sometimes said that he may have drafted Mandela’s famous speech spoken at the trial, he says that his main contribution was to advise the use of the words “if needs be” before Mandela said that he was prepared to die. Bizos believes that this may have contributed to the avoidance of the death penalty by having Mandela not appear to seek martyrdom. In 1990 he became a member of the African National Congress‘ (ANC) Legal and Constitutional Committee, and at Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) he served as advisor to the negotiating teams and participated in drawing up the Interim Constitution. He was involved in the drafting of legislation, and particularly the Truth and Reconciliation Bill and amendments to the Criminal Procedures Act, to bring it into line with Chapter 3 of the constitution, guaranteeing fundamental human rights to all citizens of South Africa.The article, written for Tata Madiba’s 95th birthday, by Bizos, moved me to tears and I wanted to share it here on my Blog:-
An enduring friendship with Nelson Mandela:
‘I wish for him a shield to protect him’: human rights lawyer George Bizos on his long-time friend.
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