THE CRUCIAL QUESTION OF SOUTH AFRICA: WILL VIOLENCE ERUPT AFTER MANDELA DIES?

As Mandela lies dying in a Pretoria hospital of a long bout with pneumonia, the question in everyone's mind is, will the union hold? Or will South Africa, no longer tied to Mandela's promise not to incite racial violence, erupt with all the pent up force of a nation still struggling with tremendous inequalities?

The ghosts of apartheid are not gone, merely contained.  From the voices of some members of the ANC comes rhetoric that should frighten the white constituency.  On the other hand the will of the people is still very much with the spirit of Mandela's pacifist message. 

But outside of the hospital where he lies, voices of dissent and anger are becoming louder.  An eruption, if there is one, could be quick in coming.  

One of the things that could precipitate a rift, is the fact that almost no white Southafricans are present at the constant vigil and prayer functions held outside the hospital. 

The black Southafricans have taken notice of the absence, and it is stoking their anger.  That anger furthermore, is fully justified. Were it not for Mandela's vision, South Africa would have descended into a bloodbath.

Some contend that white people are not showing up because they are afraid.  But their fear might become reality if they do not pay homage to the dying statesman. 

Whites for their part, insist that Mandela's death is sure to precipitate chaos. Things they say, will change abruptly after his demise, and there could be no stopping the violence that ensues.  

The problem some of the denizens of Pretoria say, is that whites have never fully accepted blacks, and don't like them.  They still consider themselves superior, and have all but walled themselves off behind razor wire fences in white-only enclaves. 

Many whites, furthermore, still hate Mandela, for surrendering what they thought as an orderly, 'civilized' country to a black majority in their mind unprepared and unschooled to guide such a developed nation. 

As one woman who courageously confronted the crowds in front of the hospital to bring flowers admits "here, you'll see that apartheid never really ended."  

And in that statement, and in the attitude of many white Southafricans, may very well lie the reason for any future strife that could befall the country.


Partial source : France 24/ 6.26.13