Salon.com > Apartheid

Mandela’s death will expose a divided South Africa

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:55:00 +0000

The news that former South African president Nelson Mandela is once again gravely ill in hospital requires us to reflect on what the country will be like without him. While he is elderly and frail and everyone knows that his passing is not far off, Mandela is not just another former president to be mourned with ceremony and nostalgia.

During his decades of imprisonment under apartheid, Mandela was an unswerving beacon for the African liberation movement, refusing all National Party offers of compromise without a guarantee that South Africa would transition to majority rule. Since his release from prison in 1990 and his election as president in 1994, Mandela has become a moral compass for the country -- indeed, for oppressed peoples everywhere. His statesman-like attitude, free of the slogans of revenge, was universally praised for raising the hope that a history of hatred need not define our futures. In short Mandela was not just the head of state, but a symbol of peace whose moral authority has defined South Africa.

Mandela has lung infection

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:53:00 +0000

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans on Saturday said their thoughts were with former President Nelson Mandela, who was in "serious but stable" condition after being taken to a hospital to be treated for a recurring lung infection.

Mandela, who is 94 years old, was treated in a hospital several times in recent months, with the last discharge coming on April 6 after doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and drained fluid from his lung area. He has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid.

A small girl and her father stood outside Mandela's Johannesburg home with a stone on which was written a get-well message for Mandela, who helped end white racist rule and became the country's first black president in all-race elections in 1994. A young boy brought a bouquet of flowers that he handed over to guards at the house.

Elsewhere in the city, some worshippers prayed for Mandela during an outdoor gathering.

"If the time comes, we wish for him a good way to go," said Noel Ngwenya, a security officer who was in the congregation.

Nelson Mandela hospitalized with lung infection

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:39:00 +0000

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president, has been admitted to a hospital with a recurring lung infection, South Africa said Thursday.

Mandela, 94, has become increasingly frail in recent years and has been hospitalized several times since last year, most recently earlier this month when he underwent what authorities said was a scheduled medical test. The Nobel laureate is a revered figure in South Africa, which has honored his legacy of reconciliation by naming buildings and other places after him and printing his image on national banknotes.

"I'm so sorry. I'm sad," said Obed Mokwana, a Johannesburg resident. "I just try to pray all the time. He must come very strong again."

The Nobel laureate was admitted to a hospital just before midnight Wednesday "due to the recurrence of his lung infection," the office of President Jacob Zuma said in a statement.

"Doctors are attending to him, ensuring that he has the best possible expert medical treatment and comfort," the statement said. It appealed "for understanding and privacy in order to allow space to the doctors to do their work."

Majority of Israeli Jews wouldn’t give Palestinians vote if West Bank annexed

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:30:00 +0000

Israeli newspaper Haaretz Tuesday published the troubling findings of a new survey looking at the views of Israeli Jews towards Arab citizens of the country when it came to hypothetical annexing of the West Bank. The study, headed by Tel Aviv University Professor Camil Fuchs, found that Jewish Israeli citizens would overwhelmingly supported an apartheid regime were the territories in Judea and Samaria annexed, meaning that they would to see Israeli Arabs get different and worse treatment systematically in civil society than Israeli Jews. Importantly, most Israeli Jews responded that they would not want to see the annexing, but were it to take place, they viewed certain segregation favorably. Haaretz reported on the findings: