2010

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from 2010

GOING BACK TWENTY YEARS ON 11 FEBRUARY 2010

RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A YOUNG SOUTH AFRICAN AFTER THE RELEASE OF NELSON MANDELA ON 11 FEBRUARY 1990

Nelson Mandela is free. After all those years, he came out of jail today with a dazzling smile. Can you believe it? After 27 years of hell, the man has no sense of revenge. He embraces everyone.

He will form a government with those who locked him up. He speaks Afrikaans. He loves his enemy and so ruins his reputation. Either he is a National Party mole in the ANC, or this man is more than anyone could imagine.

So now, everything is possible. Nelson Mandela will form a government of national unity after he has won the election with a landslide. He will reconcile former enemies and make them feel like friends.

He will change the way everyone who watches our first democratic election day feels about voting. He will be the most famous man in the world. All our dreams can now come true.

Imagine 20 years from today on 11th February 2010. Our children have had the benefit of two decades of decent education, formulated by those who were in exile for so long and who saw how important schooling is. It will be flawless because there is no reason for it not to be.

We will have houses for all the people who were denied a roof over their heads by apartheid. We will have a great unique constitution, which will be treasured and protected by future governments as a covenant of hope and security. We will have an honest police force who would never sink to the depths of degradation of the apartheid SAP.

We will dismantle the weapons factories and cut the arms budget to a bare minimum because we will have no enemy and therefore do not need a huge navy, air force or army. We will encourage our neighbours to follow our blueprint of reconciliation and see the emergence of democracy and human rights flourish across our borders in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Swaziland.

We will confront the scourge of HIV and Aids with honesty and without denials and hypocrisy, with the help of a world-class department of health, which will eventually guarantee universal healthcare for all our people.

We will overcome inflation by saving our money in banks, who will compensate for the past by making saving easy and profitable, even for the smallest saver.

We will nurture our official languages and make each child look forward to starting school with three languages to learn at the same time. We will guarantee jobs because we will create jobs and not destroy the workforce with political infighting, while dividing to rule.

We will stop exploiting our labour. We will prevent our workers being sidelined by greed and contracts for cheap produce from other countries. We will never allow any invasion by another country or sport-entity, who would take our laws and negate them for their own financial greed and gain.

All those things that the apartheid government did with such sinister success we will reject, because we have been given a second chance on this day, 11 February 1990. We won’t need a third chance, because we will make this miracle work and be an example to all. And in twenty years, a new generation of young South African voters, who were born after this day, will look back and see that we never diverted from our commitment to liberate our people and improve their existence.

On 11 February 2010 everyone will look back and say: Thank you for my life.

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