Pair of boots Mandela got back after three decades

SABC, QUNU

SOUTH AFRICA: Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete eulogised former President Nelson Mandela as a man of unmatched charisma in modern times.

President Kikwete recalled how the anti-apartheid hero once left his boots in Tanzania during his first visit in 1962 and, which were only returned when he became president.

Kikwete revealed that Mandela did not stay in a hotel but in late minister Nsilo Swai’s home. “When Madiba left for Accra, he left behind his boots in the home of the family where he stayed in the hope he could pick them up on the way back. Shortly after arriving back in South Africa he was imprisoned. In 1995, when Mandela was president, the pair of boots was handed back to him,” Kikwete said.

Speaking at Mandela’s funeral in Qunu in the Eastern Cape, Kikwete said Mandela and Tanzania’s first President Julius Nyerere built the foundation upon which the two countries’ close relationship was based.

Nyerere, after meeting Mandela as he was gathering support for the ANC’s armed struggle against apartheid, allowed Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC, to stay and train in the country. “Beyond availing places to live and train, he (Nyerere) offered Tanzania’s own moral and material support,” said Kikwete.

“Besides that, Tanzania was generous enough to give cadres of the liberation movement travel documents, passports... and when necessary, some of them assumed Tanzanian names. When Mandela came to Tanzania, he had no passport and intended to go first to Accra in Ghana, then Lagos in Nigeria, and then Addis Abba in Ethiopia.” Kikwete revealed how Mandela was given a Tanzanian passport to enable him travel around Africa and abroad. “He was given a Tanzanian travel document. It facilitated his movement and I know a number of you here used Tanzanian travel documents. I don’t know if Thabo Mbeki returned his,” Kikwete said, which induced laughter, adding “The ANC found a new home in Tanzania from where it operated, organised, spearheaded, and prosecuted the struggle.”

FOREIGN DIGNITARY

When Mandela visited Dar es Salaam after his release from prison, he was greeted by the biggest crowds ever to meet a foreign dignitary, even though it was raining at the time. “This record has not been broken,” said Kikwete.

He recited the close historical links between Tanzania and the ANC, which the apartheid government had banned at the time, severely restricting the movement of members in and beyond South Africa. “Mandela’s charisma was unmatched in modern times and it was no accident that South Africa and Tanzania enjoyed excellent bilateral relations.”

“That is why your sadness, grief and sorrow are ours as well. That is why we also join you in celebrating the life of this great man,” Kikwete said. “He has left behind a vibrant democracy. A nation where nobody is denied their basic rights because of the colour of their skin.