South Africa’s local elections has given the world its first glimpse of Nelson Mandela since he was hospitalized in January. It is not a pretty picture. In this short video released by the South African government, a mass of election officials and other staff crowd an all but inert Mandela at his home in Johannesburg and explain – seemingly more for the benefit of the camera than for the 92-year-old – that in this month’s local elections, South Africa is voting for the eighth time since the end of apartheid in 1994. Mandela sits expressionless, unsmiling and immobile apart from occasionally moving his left hand. At one point he manages a weak smile after a voice tells him: “Well done. You’ve voted.” Later three officials raise and shake his limp hand as they file out. Throughout the episode, the mass of people around Mandela are talking loudly and laughing. Aside from a brief attempt at acknowledgement, Mandela says nothing.
Mandela is, first and foremost, a political figure and a stalwart member of the African National Congress (ANC), a party in whose cause he gave up 27 years of freedom. So one can safely assume he would have wanted to vote in South Africa’s local elections, for which national polls open on Wednesday. (Those unable to travel to the polls are visited by election officials earlier, on Monday in Mandela’s case.) One might also argue that although Mandela has long objected to his own iconography – “I am just a man,” he would tell his vistors since his retirement in 1999 after one term as South Africa’s first black President – he can see the political advantage in deploying his aura in the service of his party. The ANC is all but certain to preserve its domination of South African politics at these elections but, beset by scandals over corruption, cronyism and poor service delivery, and accused of black chauvinism, faces a stiffer challenge than ever before since 1994.
Still, there is something very disturbing about this video. The sight of officials honoring themselves with Mandela’s presence is tasteless in the extreme. Mandela’s condition also reveals a deterioration that is both heart-breaking and something that decency would normally demand is only seen by close friends and family. Mandela’s foundation has long sought to protect him from the overwhelming interest in him as, in his 93rd year, it becomes increasingly clear he is physically unable to bear it. They have struggled, and for good reason: for his unbeaten determination and his extraordinary ability to emerge from 27 years in prison with forgiveness for those who unjustly imprisoned him, Mandela is the most admired human being on earth, perhaps the finest living articulation of the human spirit. But is this any way to treat our greatest hero?