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Monday, December 9, 2013

Nelson Mandela - RIP

WHEN YOU ARE IN THE COMPANY OF GREATNESS SELDOM DOES A CONCRETE WALL FAIL TO INSPIRE YOU, I AM SURE THE WHOLE WORLD WOULD AGREE AFTER ALL THAT WAS ALL THAT SEPARATED MR MANDELA FROM HIS PEOPLE FOR  27 YEARS IN PRISON.


In May 2010, I was visiting South Africa to launch the Student version of my book – MKG – Peace Truth Ahimsa - A photo biography of Mahatma Gandhi. The book release was a part of marking the centenary of the Tolstoy Farm setup by Gandhiji near Johannesburg.

I took the opportunity to gift one of my limited editions to Mr Nelson Mandela, as I knew he was an ardent admirer of Gandhi. I corresponded with the Nelson Mandela foundation for an appointment. After a series of exchanges they informed me that it would not be possible to meet Mr Mandela, however the officials of the foundation would accept it in his behalf.

On that fateful day 26th of May 2010 I reached the Nelson Mandela Foundation office in Houghton at 2.45pm for my meeting at 3 pm and was directed to the reception seating area.  At 2.55pm there was sudden excitement in the lobby and I could see officials quickly moving around.

Mr Verne S Harris came up to me and apologized that I would need to wait for another 30 minutes as something urgent has come up.  Then there was absolute silence …. I knew something special was happening.  20 minutes later everything was back to normal and Mr Harris came up to take me for my meeting with him and Mr Sello Hatang. They both informed me that Mr Mandela had come into the office to sign a special message hence my meeting had to be delayed by a few minutes. He was seated in the room next to the reception separated only by a concrete wall.