I can't say I know that much about Nelson Mandela but I do know that he used to be a leader of the African National Congress (ANC), which became an overtly terrorist organisation in 1961. Mandela was one of those who led the terrorist wing of the ANC in conjunction with the South African Communist Party and he was imprisoned for life following conviction for conspiring to overthrow the government of the country. Nonetheless, his later life, after his release from prison in 1990, has been allowed to overshadow his earlier existence and he has been all-but sanctified.
Mandela's second wife, Winnie Madikizela, pursued her own brand of violence through the 'Mandela United Football Club', and has been accused of a variety of offences ranging from theft and fraud to murder, both before and after her then husband's release from prison and even as recently as 2003. Their divorce in 1996, ostensibly due to Winnie's adultery during Mandela's imprisonment, was also an attempt by Mandela to dissociate himself from her repeated criminal activities. Clearly, politics were in there somewhere.
Today, the world is mourning the death of Mandela, at least it is according to the BBC and most other media. In truth, I suspect that most of the world doesn't really care. Even before his release from prison, Mandela had been placed on a pedestal by his supporters and his subsequent life, including his 5 years as president of South Africa, has been granted a sanctitude with which no one is permitted to disagree. Again, one suspects that this is, to say the least, a little 'over the top'.
No one can deny that the South African apartheid regime was unjust and it had to go. Sadly, and using Mandela as its totem, what has now happened is the virtual destruction of South Africa as a functioning nation by his former friends in the ANC. Mandela's period as president ended in 1999 and his only role since then has been as a figurehead who, perhaps, acted as some slight brake on the more extreme ambitions of those who have led the party since. Now that Mandela has left the scene, one has to fear that the real nature of the likes of current president Jacob Zuma will be fully exposed and the country will descend rapidly into chaos. The dictatorship of the pro-apartheid National Party has been replaced by the dictatorship and corruption of the communist and acquisitive ANC. This is simply another Zimbabwe in the making.
Mandela will, no doubt, go down in history as a 'great man'; whether or not he really was such is debatable.
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