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Colleagues praise Mandela as he bids parliament goodbye

The Associated Press

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- It isn't easy for a humble man to be called the equal of Mahatma Gandhi or the Dalai Lama. Still less so when the people making the comparisons are your political enemies. But President Nelson Mandela, bidding an emotional farewell Friday to South Africa's first democratically elected parliament, showed characteristic grace in dismissing the praise. "To the extent that I have been able to achieve anything, I know that this is because I am the product of the people of South Africa," Mandela told a packed National Assembly chamber about to disband ahead of national elections June 2. It was a typical response from a man who, despite spending 27 years in an apartheid-era prison, has won the hearts and minds of his nation with a message of racial reconciliation. Leaders from all sides of South Africa's bitterly divided political spectrum united in paying tribute to Mandela's achievements in leading South Africa through its often troubled -- but ultimately peaceful -- five years of black majority rule. "You had the ability to be everybody's president," said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, leader of the New National Party, which created apartheid. "You did not only possess generosity of spirit, (but) as president you lived it," he continued. "You are living proof that no jail can ever keep an idea imprisoned." In his speech, Mandela heaped his own praise on the assembled lawmakers. "We have laid the foundation for a better life," he said. "Things that were unimaginable a few years ago have become everyday reality. And of this, we must be proud." But he reserved his fondest remarks for those he called the "giants" of the black liberation struggle, such as former ANC leader Oliver Tambo and Robert Subukwe, founder of the black nationalist Pan-Africanist Congress. "I hope that decades from now, when history is written, the role of that generation will be appreciated and that I will not be found wanting against the measure of their fortitude and vision," he said. As he left the usually austere parliament for the last time, lawmakers stood to applaud and ANC politicians chanted and sang his name. Walking slowly out of the chamber, Mandela paused frequently to shake hands and smile broadly at the lawmakers. The final words of praise were left to the man almost certain to succeed Mandela, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. "You have inhabited the dark, dark dungeons of freedom denied," he said. "But despite it all, and because of it all, we are blessed. We are blessed because you have walked along the road of our heroes and heroines."

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