|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Bible says, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” On June 25, 2013, the day that Nelson Mandela died, his closest family members had gathered for a meeting in his childhood home of Qunu, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, according to The Guardian Express. Vultures at his deathbed, digging up children’s bones and grotesque greed: In the bitterness of ironies, the family Mandela — a man of high ideals — emerged as thoroughly unpleasant people.
He was an upright, just, and honest man. The Father of Nations, the reverend icon. He spent his life unselfishly fighting and standing in the gap for the rights of the African people. Mandela said:
During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal that I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
It is unfortunate for a man to devote his life to bringing harmony to a whole nation; having his own family brings about severance and discord in his death. He left behind an unparalleled legacy of peace, dignity, and selflessness. If early reports are accurate, some of his children and grandchildren do not exactly subscribe to the same value system.
A Legacy Tarnished by Greed
Mandela passed away. He was no longer among the living anymore, but he was kept “alive” unnaturally on apparatuses to do his breathing and support some of his organs.
He is dead. Yet, his offspring and President Zuma were fighting with those that Mandela charged as head of his assets. Mandela is being kept “alive” so that his covetous children in conspiracy with President Zuma can obtain his fortune.
The harmonic words of The O’Jays song, “For the Love of Money,” sadly expressed the actions of Mandela’s family:
Some people got to have it; some people really need it…people will steal from their mother; for the love of money; people will rob their own brother…Lord, they will cheat for the love of money; people don’t care who they hurt or beat [all] for the love of money.
Money can be a blessing or a curse. Mandela amassed a great fortune while he was president. He did so, by all accounts, legitimately, with his legacy, his descendants, in mind. Unfortunately, Mandela’s children and grandchildren turned his hard-earned dollars and riches into a curse. Bitterly split into factions, they fought not only over the power to run trust-funds that held his multi-million-pound fortune but for the right to be considered his ideological heir.
Opinion News by Sharri Rogers
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
Guardian Liberty Voice: Mandela Legacy Betrayed by Family and Country; Nelson Mandela Dies, Greed Lives On [Video] Update! By Graham Noble
Forbes: Will Nelson Mandela’s Heirs Tarnish His Legacy Through Greed And Fighting? By Danielle and Andy Mayoras
United Nations Foundation: 12 Inspiring Nelson Mandela Quotes; by Jenni Lee
Feature and Top Image Courtesy of Matt Brown
Inset Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License