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As South Africa marks 30 years since the anti-apartheid leader’s release from prison, some people on the streets where he once lived now see him as a sellout’ rather than a hero
A Friday morning in Soweto. Summer rains have washed the streets clean. The tourists cycle down Vilakazi Street, past new restaurants and street stalls selling handicrafts. In a souvenir shop window, a cleaner dusts a statue of Soweto’s most famous one-time resident: Nelson Mandela.
The tourists entertain no doubts about Mandela’s grandeur and goodness, his status as fighter in the struggle against the brutal and racist apartheid regime that kept the inhabitants of Soweto and tens of millions of others in poverty and squalor, and the Nobel prize laureate’s record as first leader of a free South Africa. Continue reading...