Righteous indignation: the mishandling of Nelson Mandela's illness

It's not often spoken of, certainly not publicly, but a great deal of planning and an enormous amount of money has gone into planning for the death of Nelson Mandela. The secrecy is partially commercial... and partially a matter of respect. However inevitable, it is never comfortable to talk about death even in the abstract, never mind the death of a specific person. When that person is the world's most adored living icon and one of the greatest men ever to walk the earth, well, you just tend to shut the hell up...Which makes the abject failure of everyone, with the somewhat startling exception of the media, all the more amazing.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) lied. It first lied off the record, on Wednesday, 26 January 2011, saying that Mandela would not be admitted to hospital but would leave after tests had been done. Then, later in the day, it lied on the record. "We can confirm that Mr. Mandela is at Milpark hospital undergoing routine tests," it said in the only official statement of any kind on the day.

Early Thursday afternoon the Presidency chimed in with its own statement, which added absolutely nothing to the sum total of knowledge about Mandela's state of health. "President Mandela is comfortable and is well looked after by a good team of medical specialists," is all it had to say. It then seemed surprised, despite the fraught emotional environment, when people pointed out that "comfortable" and "very gravely ill" are not mutually exclusive concepts, but did nothing to clarify matters.

Thirty one hours elapsed between official confirmation that Mandela was in hospital and official word, albeit ever so vague, of what specifically ails him. It would be another 12 hours after that - assuming, at the time of writing, that a scheduled media address by acting President Kgalema Motlanthe goes ahead - before real details, if any, would emerge.

Read the full article on www.thedailymaverick.co.za.