Saluting Mandela, an autocratic democrat

Saluting Mandela, an autocratic democrat | News | National | Mail & Guardian: "Nelson Mandela was not always a softie. He was once a militant youth leader who broke up meetings of comrades he disagreed with. The Mandela who later pushed for the ANC to abandon the armed struggle was the chief architect of the same, becoming not only its first commander-in-chief but also its first trained soldier too.

He believed in action and led by example, both by getting military training and becoming the chief volunteer during the defiance campaign. But at the core of all this militancy was always a desire to get the white colonial regime to come to the table and talk.

So for him, even the armed struggle was not to win victory in the field, but to shake the system in such a way that it would want to talk. It was an ambitious project and with a succession of staunch racists such as Hendrik Verwoerd, John Vorster and PW Botha at the helm of the National Party, prison looked more and more like a final home."

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