POVERTY AND THE LEGACY OF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE AND SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT THE HONORABLE NELSON ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and South African President The Honorable NELSON ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA  (left) pictured above with Sir ROBERT GELDOF on 3 February 2005 in Trafalgar Square in London in the United Kingdom launching that nation's "Make Poverty History" Campaign (Photograph Courtesy of the IRISH TIMES -  https://www.irishtimes.com/how-lucky-we-are-there-was-a-man-such-as-nelson-mandela-1.1618597)

          After 27 years of incarceration as a political prisoner of the South African government, on 10 May 1994, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate The Honorable Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela became the first Black President of South Africa. Two weeks earlier, on 24 April 1994, more than approximately 22,000,000 South Africans voted in South Africa’s first multiracial parliamentary election which represented the Continent of Africa’s largest economy. Overwhelmingly, Mr. Mandela and the African National Congress Party were selected to lead the African nation.  The news of Mr. Mandela’s election and inauguration as President of South Africa brought a climatic end to apartheid and immersed the world in delirious jubilation.  During his five years at the helm of South Africa’s government, President Mandela masterfully navigated the nation’s transition from apartheid and steered it away from repression, widespread violence, and economic collapse. President Mandela connected the dots between economic progress and political progress. From 1980 through 1994, economic growth in South Africa rose at a rate of less than 1.5%. Under President Mandela, South Africa’s gross domestic product growth rate moved up to nearly 3%. According to South African economist Murray Leibbrandt, a Professor of Economics in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town, the average income for South Africans increased. Professor Liebbrandt, whose fields of research encompasses poverty, inequality, and labor markets in South Africa, cites the rise of average incomes for Black Africans by 93% and the rise of average personal incomes of White South Africans by 62% as evidence that the South African economy prospered under President Mandela’s leadership. Despite these very encouraging economic statistics, poverty in South Africa did not disappear.  

          Economic growth in post-Apartheid South Africa had and continues to have many twists and turns. The late President Mandela’s detractors are quick to point to pockets of economic turpitude which existed and continues to exist in a number of communities populated entirely or predominantly by Black Africans. They neglect to mention that under President Mandela’s leadership, approximately 300,000,000 Rands were allocated to Poverty Relief in the government’s 1997 budget, which included approximately 85,000,000 Rands being allocated for the Rural Anti-Poverty Programme of the Department of Public Works.  The Rural Anti-Poverty Programme focused on the KwaZulu/Natal, Eastern Cape, and North Province of South Africa – a region where most of the nation’s poverty is highly concentrated. In 1998, the budget of the South African government’s Poverty Relief Fund was increased from 300,000,000 Rands to 500,000,000 Rands.  South Africa’s Department of Public Works was given 274,000,000 Rands which was designated for building access roads in rural areas. Additionally, President Mandela’s detractors neglect to take into consideration that he found himself in the unenviable position of having to delicately and peacefully merge a large segment of the South African population into an economy from which they had been historically excluded, while ensuring that incomes and access to services and civil rights improved and remained unfettered. Now that was quite a balancing act!

          After completing a five-year term as President of South Africa, Mr. Mandela opted not to seek re-election. Poverty and economic inequality continued to be an important issue for the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former South African President which he addressed through philanthropy. On 3 February 2005, President Mandela traveled to the United Kingdom where he delivered a stirring address in London’s Trafalgar Square to a crowd of at least approximately 22,000 souls in connection with Great Britain’s launch of the Make Poverty History Campaign, spearheaded by musician, concert producer, and humanitarian Sir Robert Geldof. Through the Make Poverty History Campaign, Geldof exhorted the wealthy nations of the world to “drop the debt” owed by African nations as they struggled to eradicate the extreme poverty that negatively impacted living conditions and the quality of life for their citizens.   President Mandela urged the souls gathered at Trafalgar Square to join a global campaign against poverty:

           “I am privileged to be here today at the invitation of The Campaign to Make Poverty History. As you know, I recently formally announced my retirement from public life and should really not be here. However, as long as poverty, injustice, and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest. Moreover, the Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty represents such a noble cause that we could not decline the invitation.  Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times -- times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation -- that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils. The Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty can take its place as a public movement alongside the movement to abolish slavery and the international solidarity against apartheid. . . .  Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom. . . .”

             On 4 February 2005, President Mandela made his case for the eradication of poverty and economic inequality to the G7 Finance Ministers Meeting. The Group of Seven or G7 is an informal bloc of industrialized democracies—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—that meets annually to discuss issues such as global economic governance, international security, and energy policy.  During his meeting with the G7 Finance Ministers, President Mandela eloquently decried the persistent level of poverty that many souls throughout our global village find themselves immersed in:

        “ . . . You have it in your capacity and means to solve, perhaps not all of the problems of the planet, but at least one of the most serious and demeaning problems of our times. I am referring to the persistence of massive poverty in our human midst, especially in the developing world and even more particularly in Africa. I have agreed to be here in spite of having formally announced my retirement from, and my sincere desire to be relieved of obligations towards, public life. I am here not to merely symbolically grace an occasion with the grey hairs of an old man that the world seems to love in his old age.  I am here to publicly share with you the outrage you wish to demonstrate, I believe, against that persistence of poverty amongst the masses of people all over the globe in the midst of the most breathtaking advances humanity has ever experienced. As long as abject poverty persists globally as a manifestation of gross inequality, the struggle that I and my comrades and compatriots and all our international solidarity partners conducted is not over.. . . . We need action on debt cancellation – multilateral as well as bilateral -- to remove the burdens of the past and allow people to be free. We need trade justice: no more subsidies and tariffs from the West that harm the exports and the people of Africa and the developing world. We need help to build infrastructure so that Africa can take advantage of trading opportunities and be given a fair chance to compete in the world economy. We need an increase, in fact the doubling, of aid through the International Finance Facility: not small amounts here and there, now and then; not funds only when there is an emergency flashed up on international TV screens; but a doubling of aid – another fifty billion dollars for each and every year until 2015. We need funding that can be relied upon and can be spent wisely on educating people, making them healthy and providing roads and communications so they can participate in the globalising world. They need to be given the opportunities now so that in future they can have the dignity of helping themselves.  . . .”

      The Honorable Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela worked relentlessly to eradicate poverty and economic injustice and create economic security not just for South Africans – but for all souls throughout our global village. He envisioned a world in which all souls thrived in economically vibrant communities. The eradication of poverty is a component of the multi-faceted legacy of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former South African President The Honorable Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela that is indelibly etched in stone.

         The United States International Men's Day team joined individuals, organizations, and institutions throughout our global village in celebrating the life of The Honorable Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela on his100th birthday on 18 July 2018.  We have worked and will continue to work to perpetuate his legacy through our advocacy, creation, and support of initiatives that help to eradicate injustice; recidivism; poverty; hunger; ethnic and religious intolerance; xenophobia; and lack of access to real-life options, adequate physical and mental health resources and support services, and education.