2013: The year of Mandela’s death, media walk of shame

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela bid farewell to this world on December 6. He was 95. He had spent 60 years of his highly enviable life fighting for equality and justice. Emerging from 27 years of imprisonment on February 11, 1990, Mandela did the unthinkable; asking black South Africans to forgive and embrace their Afrikaner tormentors. From 1944 when he joined the African National Congress, Mandela spent 67 years serving his country, first as an activist and campaigner for equal rights, then as a political prisoner and, finally, as his country’s first democratically elected president. The UN declared July 18 Mandela Day, with the world celebrating by offering 67 minutes of their time for charity. Well, this is a recap of 2013. And sure, many other prominent personalities passed on—from Tabu Ley Rocheareu of DR Congo to actor Paul Walker former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and televangelist Paul Crouch. The year has seen many deaths of prominent persons. However, like Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho put it; “Who are we to discuss mere mortals among the immortal that Madiba is?” If all those who departed the world in 2013 would meet in the purgatory, there is no doubt none would qualify to touch the Madiba Shirt, Mandela’s trademark garment. Sure, Mandela was human, made mistakes and failed in some endeavours, but he was and will remain a reverence, a cult figure that world leaders look up to—or, at least, pretend to do so. History will remember 2013 as the year the world, exemplified by the media, the so-called agenda-setters of society, descended on Pretoria with such a ghoulish show of human trait not seen before. The year 2013 will go down in the lore as the time a leader of the US and Cuba convened at the same venue and shook hands, for the first time since the Cold War in the 1950s. For the media and the world they represented, it was a quest to “break the news” of Mandela’s passing on. Symbolically, a cruel nature of the world we live in, a world that haunts even the dying and will give them no chance of peaceful journey to the next world. For Cuba and US, it was a symbolic moment of showing that Madiba’s “peacemaker” magic wand was alive even in death, as he united the world in grief and celebration of his life. Ghoulish media A year after Mandela retired from public life in 2004, international news agencies started panting cameras at the legend’s village home in Qunu, Eastern Cape Town. The Associated Press and Reuters had installed at least three CCTV cameras at a house opposite Mandela’s to try and track down every telltale sign of his passing on. They would defend the action when The Time of South Africa revealed of the hidden cameras, saying many other media houses were doing it. It emerged then that by the time Pope John Paul II, arguably the most famous of the contemporary pontiffs, lay on his deathbed in April 2004, CNN correspondent Alessio Vinci had spent a decade in a flat near the Vatican to await to break the news of the pontiff’s death. Al Jazeera Africa correspondent Haru Mutasa, among the journalists camped in Pretoria to await the passing on of Mandela in July, called the drama a “walk of shame.” She said: “People living in the area hurl insults like ‘what are you doing here in the first place? or who told you vultures he was dying this time? That’s what your parents sent you to school for, now you look like imbeciles, stupid vultures with egg on your faces.’” But not even pleas from the South African presidency, from Mandela family and the civil society could deter the media. They were vultures eager to peck on Mandela’s last moments on earth. Nothing would deter them. For three months, they stalked the precincts of Pretoria. And they would sigh wearily wondering when the old man would pass on so they can do the job and return to their other lives. But the man refused to grant them their wishes, even ‘celebrating’ his 95th birthday from hospital. On September 1, Mandela was driven home in ‘critical but stable condition’ to allow his family to share time with him in a more intimate setting. He passed on huddled by his family on December 6, to another world, a world free of media vultures, a world free of wolves in sheep skin shedding crocodile tears. The tributes Pope John Paul II’s funeral in April 2004 was only billed in the same dais with Princess Diana’s in September 1997. On June 25, 2009, Michael Jackson died after suffering cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles. His funeral would surpass the aforementioned two. But Mandela’s State funeral, on Tuesday, December 10, was in its own world. The world was given the chance to say public farewell to the “soft-spoken hero who broke the shackles of a nation and became a global symbol of hope and inspiration.” From US President Barack Obama and three of his predecessors (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter), to Cuba’s Raul Castro—his revolutionary brother Fidel could not attend due to ill health—world leaders decended on the FNB Stadium in Soweto to pay their last respects to Mandela. Several royals, heads of government and celebrities also attended. Rwanda’s delegation was led by Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, with President Paul Kagame paying his last respects as the body was taken to lie in state at the Union Buildings. By the time Mandela was laid to rest on December 15 in Qunu, Eastern Cape Town, thousands of British citizens had written to BBC to complain over the “excessive coverage” of Mandela on the UK public broadcaster. *** MANDELAS KEY DATES 1918 - Born in the Eastern Cape1944 - Joined African National Congress1956 - Charged with high treason, but charges dropped1962 - Arrested, convicted of sabotage, sentenced to five years in prison1964 - Charged again, sentenced to life1990 - Freed from prison1993 - Wins Nobel Peace Prize1994 - Elected first black president1999 - Steps down as leader2001 - Diagnosed with prostate cancer2004 - Retires from public life2005 - Announces his son has died of an HIV/Aids-related illness2007 - Forms The Elders group2010 - Appears at closing ceremony of World Cup