Whatever else about the Primetime coverage last night, it was a useful reminder of just how vicious the Apartheid regime was; how complicit the West were in maintaining it; and, how many people were killed resisting it (Ronnie Kasrils cited a figure of 14,000 over a six year period towards the end of the regime). The fuzzy ‘Rainbow Nation’ rhetoric since 1994 has served to considerably water down events pre-1990.
Also, the ANC deployed tactics almost exactly the same as the IRA. Informers were tortured and executed; civilians died, etc, etc. Mandela is far, far closer to Adams than any of the mainstream bandwagon jumpers in Ireland today will ever acknowledge.
By the way, Mandela’s death will likely near bankrupt several news organisations who Private Eye reports spent a fortune waiting around earlier this year when it looked like he was about to go. And then he didn’t and they all had to go home. Now he has gone, they’ve to come back again: hotels are probably trebling their prices etc.