Building a Foundation

Yesterday was Nelson Mandela's 93rd Birthday. As I was driving to work, a national message was broadcast over the radio from our current president, Jacob Zuma, to honour this day of celebration and a call to action for us to give our time to help others.


One part of the speech really caught my attention: It was a section dedicated to building a foundation, Zuma said, "As the first President of a free and democratic South Africa, {Mandela} laid the foundation for a truly non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society. He laid the foundation for a solid constitutional democracy where the rights of citizens are supreme and protected. He laid the foundation for all of us to work tirelessly to improve the quality of life of all our people."


When I heard this, I had to stifle a good laugh, what is that saying, out of the mouths of babes.....as far as I'm concerned every government since Nelson Mandela was in power has chosen to ignore such a solid foundation, every action they have taken has been a mockery of this foundation, a mockery of Nelson Mandela's legacy.


I acknowledge that each of us has made the same mistake. How often have we laid the foundation for ourselves to be greater human beings and failed? We have good intentions to no avail.


Often we don't scale the highest mountain because of fear. We are afraid, firstly of failing, then we are afraid of actually succeeding, because what would that mean?


Nelson Mandela has said, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

As a human being, we will always struggle and tussle with our fears, but I challenge all of us to continue to strive for greatness and to understand that once you have scaled the highest mountain you could possibly imagine, there will be another one. You have to keep going.......