10/23/2025
After becoming President, I asked my security team to go have lunch at a restaurant.We sat down, and everyone ordered what they wanted.
At the table in front of us, there was a man waiting to be served. After he was served,I told one of my guards, go and ask that gentleman to join us..The soldier went to deliver my invitation.The man stood up took his plate and sat down right next to me.
While he ate,his hands trembled constantly,and he didn't lift his head from his meal. When we finished,he greeted me without looking up. I shook his hand and he left .
The soldier said to me:
Madiba,that man must have been very ill, because his hands wouldn't stop shaking while he was eating..
Absolutely not I replied. The reason for his trembling is something else.
Then I explained:
That man was the director of the prison where I was held..After torturing me,I screamed and cried asking for water.. he came to humiliate me - he mocked me and instead of giving me water, he urinated on my head.
He isn't sick.he was afraid that I now President of South Africa would send him to prison and do to him what he did to me. But I am not like that - such behaviour is not part of my character or my ethics.
Spirit that seem revenge destroy nation while those that seek reconciliation build them. As I left home I knew that if I did not leave behind all my anger,hatred and resentment,I would remain a prisoner forever..
Moral lesson : Hate is for the weak