HARARE - Yesterday South Africa and the world bade farewell to an icon, Nelson Mandela — who was buried in his ancestral Qunu village at the family shrine.
His burial closed a chapter on the life of a giant who preached peace and reconciliation despite the tortuous journey he travelled in his checkered political being.
Mandela was one of a few kind in this world and his name will forever be spoken not only in South Africa but globally.
Madiba left a rich legacy which many African and indeed world leaders find hard to leave upon death or political retirement.
The 27 years in jail did not deter him from envisioning a peaceful, tolerant and progressive South Africa.
Again, his release from prison was the beginning of a long road to freedom, economic political and social independence.
That cannot be judged in 19 years but in the next years that will put to test South Africa’s racial harmony and co-existence between competing black empowerment interests and growing the economy.
Those 10 days of mourning, Mandela and the inevitable burial were a reminder, especially to African despotic leaders who do not practice what they preach.
There are many African presidents who trample, violate and subjugate the rights and the will of their nationals.
They promote hate and use divisive means to hang onto power.
And they see everything wrong with a justice system that seeks to redress their heinous acts.
This is captured in their resentment for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its justice system which they accuse of being racist.
Yet these are the same people who preside over constitutions which they mutilate and rip.
This is not the Mandela dream!
For those final moments it dawned on many in South Africa and the rest of the world that it will take a long time to have another Mandela, and highly doubtful if he will ever emerge from Africa, again.
It can only help Africa to have leaders who stand for humanity and truly fight for the advancement of their countries without subjecting citizens to State brutality.
Africa can prosper with the kind of leadership that Mandela exhibited and the respect he earned in prison, later as president and lastly as a global icon outside politics.
There are so many lessons to be learned from the life of Madiba!