Star comment: One man changed the world

It takes a strength of character few possess to emerge from incarceration after 27 years and leave behind resentment and bitterness in order to pursue a world of hope.

Thanks to Mandela, the African National Congress moved from being covert revolutionaries to the mainstream of politics.

The people of South Africa were free to choose whomever they wanted to lead them and they chose Nelson Mandela.

It is easy to see why.

Others may have believed that vengeance and violence were the only answer to the disgrace that was apartheid in South Africa, that equality was something that had to be taken by force.

Mandela believed instead in reconciliation and forgiveness.

People must be under no illusion that the struggle against apartheid in South Africa was bloody and that there were terrible things done by both sides.

Under apartheid, the indigenous population of South Africa was denied the basic human rights that we all take for granted. Access to education, housing and employment was determined by the colour of one's skin, and organisations such as the ANC were unable to pursue their campaigns by democratic means simply because they were denied access to the ballot box.

This was a bleak period in South African history, and while the ANC committed its fair share of atrocities, these are dwarfed by those done at the hands of the apartheid government.

Mandela's greatest achievement must surely be the way that he was able to bring peace and reconciliation to this strife-torn nation.

Democracy

How many in the West, while condemning the principles behind apartheid, quietly believed that it was the lesser of the two evils, and that South Africa would descend into civil war and sectarian violence if the regime were to fall?

That this never happened, and South Africa was able to peacefully make the transition to a genuine democracy, is in no small part down to Mandela.

Here was a man who emerged from the best part of three decades in prison showing not a hint of bitterness and who spread the message that it was time for a fresh start.

He knew that there is only one outcome when one tries to fight fire with fire.

The sheer force of his personality persuaded people from all sides of South Africa's fragmented society to put the problems of the past behind them, and to start building a new nation where everybody – regardless of race – could live in peace and harmony.

It would be naive to think that this has come anything like close to being achieved in its entirety. The scars of apartheid will take many years to heal, and there are still people from all sectors of society nursing grievances going back a long time.

But for all that, who would have envisaged the transformation that South Africa has seen over the last quarter of a century? Who, in the grim days of the 1960s, 70s or 80s, would have imagined that the country would host a successful football World Cup, or that its cricketers – both black and white – would be competing at the highest level in the world?

Today's South Africa is far from a perfect society. Many of its so-called townships are ghettoes.

Nonetheless, compared to a generation ago, it is like another planet.

It may well still straddle the line between first and third world, and poverty will continue to keep its people from being equal. But Nelson Mandela created the foundations of a better future. It is now up to others to carry on his work.

His great light has gone out. But Madiba has shown the way.

See also:

• Latest updates

• Mandela: Doors must never again close on the legacy left by great man

• Tributes to 'icon of all icons'

• Mandela: man who saved South Africa

• Light has gone out in the world: PM

• 'Unofficial president of the world'

• What they said about Mandela