By Dr Ireen Mahamba

SOMETIMES tears just burst out without warning, and you realise something special has separated, something has gone out of your life and it is irreparable.
They say they expected Mandela to go anytime, perhaps, but it is normal for someone who has given up so much for others to be at peace at the end, to say goodbye on his own terms, not to be tormented by physical pain right until the very end.
Nelson Mandela is gone…. He is unbelievable, unforgettable because of what he was prepared to forgo, to endure for the sake of the down trodden. He felt for his fellow South African blacks and was prepared to give his all to end a system that condemned his kinsmen to live as underdogs in the land of their birth. The dire poverty, the backbreaking labour to which the Africans were condemned, the brutality of apartheid, the utter hopelessness of the black people stirred his heart and he sacrificed a promising career as a lawyer for the freedom struggle in the full knowledge that it could cost his life.
It is Sharpville, it is the Soweto Uprising in which hundreds of defenseless students were massacred by the apartheid regime, it is a heartless brutal system that left a trail of unquantifiable pain, sorrow that made Mandela feel that whatever it cost, the fight was worth it, this we must never forget. His was not the life of a movie star, it was real pain, death, sorrow, grief, suffering all around him. When they released him from prison, his body was but broken and, as a result he continued to suffer from so many physical ailments until he died; he did not go through all this to become famous, he did it to relieve the suffering of millions, to restore dignity to the chained Africans.
The 27 years in prison, is more than a lifetime, it is difficult to find an example of a greater willingness to suffer for justice, an unflinching readiness to endure so much for the freedom of his people.
Watching the media coverage on his death in the last few days, one can get the impression that Mandela’s life is about the who’s who of the world, almost as if it is about the glitz of the metropolis of the Western world. As if the lowly, those whose powerlessness was at the centre of Madiba’s heart are no longer at the centre of his life.
Reconciliation is divine, and should be applauded by all who are interested in the progress of mankind, but it is a two way process and, cannot be used to cover up festering wounds. Those who descend on South Africa to say goodbye to this great son of Africa should remember that the greatest tribute to Mandela is to stand for what he fought for in South Africa and in their own backyards. To hail Mandela and at the same time continue to cause untold suffering across the globe is hypocritical to say the least.
To Graca his wife, the greater Mandela family, the ANC, the South African Government and people, the whole of Africa and the progressive peoples of the world, it is a moment of sadness but also a moment of celebrating a life that proved that goodness, justice, truth, can prevail and endure, the life of a dauntless freedom fighter.
But, it is also a time of reckoning for South Africans. Mandela did the groundwork and laid the foundation for a society in which all South Africans are entitled to equal economic, political and social rights, it is up to them who remain to make this a reality; more than all the words that can be said, this is the best way to honour Tata Mandela.
Farewell Comrade Mandela!