Free State Vice-Chancellor Wishes Mandela Would Die

The University of Free State Vice Chancellor says he wishes Nelson Mandela would just die.

In comments that shocked his audience Professor Jonathan Jansen was quoted by Beeld as saying over the weekend:

Every time we hear he’s in hospital, everyone thinks, this is it, he’s going to die this time. Big Mac (Maharaj, presidential spokesman) is lying when he says Madiba is in for check-ups. When you are 94, you go to hospital to die; not for routine tests.

His spokesperson says that he was simply saying that it was time to let the elderly statesman to go peacefully.

His thoughts are not exactly isolated as people we have met have started wondering about the quality of his life with him being taken in out of hospital every other month. Some cynically say that he is being kept alive so as to keep the funds coming in.

Others feel that they are becoming weary with the news of the old man going in and out of hospital has them on this emotional roller-coaster, where they keep expecting the worst and then going back to normal.

Now we are never people to wish this sort of thing because one cannot say anything about whether Madiba wants to stay alive or not, unless they were the old man himself. After all he is actively fighting these illnesses.

At the same time you can see how some people will feel the way they did.