Sequel to Long Walk to Freedom - Revision 6 - Chapter 1 Page 5

Their modest contributions to society live beyond the grave. They become worthy candidates to immortality. In which of the above category do we place the long list of resisters who have graced our beloved country and took centre stage in the defence of liberty from the time of the landing of Jan van Riebeck in 1652 to the present? Are they men and women who left nothing behind, not even their names? Are they men and women who are haunted by the evil deeds they committed against other human beings? Are they former freedom fighters that later turned and robbed their countries of their wealth? Did they become role models and worthy candidates for immortality? It is now common knowledge that an unprecedented challenge faced the first democratically elected government of the Republic of South Africa. It was a major Rubicon to cross for the generation of dynamic and steeled freedom fighters who, for almost half a century, had sacrificed everything for the liberation of their fatherland. Some of them had given up lucrative careers, spent a lifetime under harsh conditions in exile, mobilizing the international community to condemn apartheid and to isolate white South Africa.