Nelson Mandela, South Africa's favourite icon and mentor to many people, is loved by nearly all the South African people, regardless of race, colour or religion. He celebrated his 89th birthday earlier this month.
The now frail, Nelson Mandela celebrated his birthday in true "Madiba" style. It was an occasion for the children. A celebration, that will hopefully happen again for a good few years to come.
Unfortunately, tension is being felt by some of the nation. A DVD, claiming the death of Nelson Mandela, will increase racial tension in the country and spark violence, with text messages and emails of a similar nature, are being circulated to various different people around the country.
The DVD, with the word
'Suidlanders' - a reference to a far right-wing group with links to the boeremag - written on the front of it, is offensive.
Freedom fighters are filmed singing, with subtitles included.
"Go safely, (Mkhonto) we, the members of the MK have pledged ourselves to kill the 'AMA-Bhulu' (whites)."
Geoff and Linda Mohr, a 40-year-old farming couple, living in Cape Town, are the latest to receive this DVD in the post. The only reference to the origin of the DVD is the Pretoria stamp on the envelope. The DVD is now in the possession of The
Cape Argus which appears to have been compiled by a professional, being neatly edited with bits of archive material complete with voice overs.
The couple, who have been farming pigs, cows and horses, all their lives have never received anything like this before. They are not racist, and employ 20 people on their 45 hectare farm. They are very upset to have received this, and wonder where, did they get their names and address from.
They were completely startled when watching the DVD, and Linda said the tape took her back to the apartheid era, which she could have understood, had it been sent prior to 1994. She finds it difficult to believe this is happening in this day and age. She added:
"I am not racist. I am disgusted, horrified, that this is still going on in our country. Meeting Mandela was a highlight that I will treasure all my life."
According to Sally De Beer, the national police director, the police are aware of the malicious DVD and messages doing the rounds in the country. She assured the public the police would not hesitate to act.
"Twenty one of the members are on trial for terrorism and sabotage".
The government do their very best to assure us crime has come down. But they either fiddle with their statistics or do not print the truth. Over the week-end, a couple my daughter knows, who have the very best security money can buy were broken into. Apart from stealing all their possessions, they abducted their son, who has fortunately been returned. They attacked the owners of the house, and to-day, the wife is still "very heavily sedated". She is too terrified to stay at home alone, and her husband is too scared to leave her. Only they know what they endured.
To come back to the DVD, with the police stating they are ready to act! They are neither able, equipped or properly trained to help the citizens now. My thoughts, along with the thoughts of many others is, that Nelson Mandela does have a silent authority over the people. When he goes, probably so will his dream - a country, for all to live, equally and on par with each other.
"Ebony and Ivory, live together in perfect harmony" sadly seems to be a long way off at the moment.
