Afrikaner tycoon's magical memories of Madiba

LEADING businessman and Stellenbosch University chancellor Johann Rupert has spoken publicly for the first time of Nelson Mandela's relationship with his family and how Madiba sent him his most prized possession.

Rupert said he "could not find too many Afrikaner business persons who were privileged enough to do so".

"I don't know if I will ever experience such trust again," he said. "A letter to me in Madiba's own handwriting, which I received on October 10 2003, telling me he regarded me as a son, is my most cherished non-human asset."

Rupert recalled the weekend that brought love to Malelane, Mpumalanga. "Just before Christmas, at a time when he had already become president and had separated from Mrs Madikizela-Mandela, Madiba called me to say he wanted to get away . Did I have anywhere he could go?

"I offered him three huts I have on the banks of the Crocodile River, just south of the Kruger Park. I explained to my colleagues that they had to keep absolutely quiet about the visit."

Graça Machel, widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel, arrived to spend the weekend with Mandela.

She arrived at Malelane airport after it had been locked, but, according to Rupert, "this did not faze Mrs Machel, who promptly climbed over the fence".

Mandela always put South Africa's interests first, said Rupert. He gave as an example how he was invited to Mandela's Houghton home on the day before the first democratic elections .

"He told me three election-related issues worried him hugely. First, he faced the prospect of having to appoint key white ministers from outside the ANC to run the police, the defence force and the finance portfolio, as well as to fill the governorship of the Reserve Bank, because the ANC did not have suitably qualified people at the time.

"Second, he was worried that the ANC might obtain a two-thirds majority, which would hand it the unfortunate capability of determining the final constitution, thereby sacrificing buy-in from other parties.

"Finally, he was worried the ANC might win KwaZulu-Natal, a result he believed the IFP would not accept, raising the spectre of a blood bath."

Then there was Mandela's meeting with foreign communists.

"When Madiba went to Davos for the first time to attend the World Economic Forum, he was especially keen to meet the Chinese. On meeting them, he told them of his excitement to at long last meet some true communists - there were very few left. They looked at him rather sheepishly, placed their fingers on their lips and quietly informed him that they were not communist any more. Afterwards, he told me of his supreme shock, framing it thus: 'Johann, they might as well have told the pope there is no life after death.'"

In the days following Mandela's death, Rupert has taken stock. "If I had to encapsulate Madiba in one word, that word would be 'caring'. He was a caring individual, and nowhere was that more apparent than in the role he - like the late Diana, Princess of Wales - played in the destigmatisation of people living with HIV/Aids.

"One day he was visiting a rural village in North West. He noticed that a certain hut was avoided by everyone. On inquiring, he was told the person living there was HIV-positive, so no one went there. Madiba went into the hut, emerging in the company of the shunned individual."

Rupert said he "went through a miserable stage when I was very concerned, worrying whether white people had a place or future in Africa. I shared my conviction with Madiba. It was one of the only times I ever saw him angry.

"'If the Good Lord did not want white people in Africa, there would not be white people in Africa,'" he said.