South Africans contemplate a country without Mandela

PRETORIA – Amid the sprawling diversity of Soweto, an urban area of Johannesburg,  Vilakazi Street is the most famous street.

A billboard for beer tells the story, noting that one particular block was home to two Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

At one end is Desmond Tutu house, although he spends most of his time in Cape Town these days. At the other end of the street is Nelson Mandela House.

It was the first home he bought as an adult, moving there in 1946 with his first wife Evelyn.

After their divorce, he was joined in 1957 by his second wife Winnie. Mandela was frequently absent — on the run from authorities — but it was his base until he was sentenced to life in prison for treason, in 1964.

Gallery: Nelson Mandela – A life in photos

Now it’s a museum, and probably the biggest tourist attraction in Soweto.

On the cool, sunny day we visited, we found vendors across the street trying to hawk African souvenirs.

Opposite the house is the Mandela Family Restaurant, which was closed. Our fixer Mophethe pointed out that it really had no connection to the family. She also pointed out the bullet holes that are still evident in one wall.

For such a notable man, Mandela House is a modest brick bungalow.

A tour guide cheerfully rhymed off the key dates in his life, explaining that a schoolmaster dubbed him Nelson because he was unable to pronounce his Xhosa given name — Rolihlahla, which means ‘troublemaker’.

The house is tiny, and there are a few bits of original, simple furniture remaining inside. Mainly, it is filled with citations, pictures and awards presented to Mandela and and Winnie — including one from a Canadian Sikh organization.

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Mophethe found a family around the corner that knew him in the old days.

Elsie Mofomo was sitting outside the house where she was born.

It was as modest a dwelling as Mandela’s. I pulled up a chair on the dirt backyard and asked her to share her memories.

“Mandela! Mandela! Oh, I love that man,” she said with a smile. She remembered fondly the image of him walking by their house and flashing a thumbs up.

Now that the 94-year national hero is again in hospital, seriously ill with another recurrence of the lung infections that have plagued him in old age, South Africans are struggling with their feelings as they consider the consequences of his passing.

WATCH: South Africa President says Mandela is improving

“We’re going to cry all of us,” said Mofomo. “I don’t know who can replace him.”

An old comrade of the former president stirred a debate when he told the Sunday Times newspaper “the family must release him so that God may have his own way.”

Andrew Mlangeni was a longtime friend and a fellow inmate on Robben Island.

“Once the family releases him, the people of South Africa will follow. We will say thank you, God, you have given us this man.”

In African culture, it is considered very poor manners to speak about the impending death of a revered elder. Mlangeni’s words drew much criticism.

He declined our request for an interview, saying people were phoning to berate him as insensitive.

Mandela’s current house is a far cry from the brick bungalow in Soweto. It is a walled-compound in the posh Johannesburg neighbourhood of Houghton and a security guard comes out to shoo away anyone who gets too close.

In little garden plots surrounding the house, people have been dropping off rocks that are brightly painted with messages of support and love. One said: “thanx Father.”

News crews are stationed down the block because they are prohibited from setting up directly opposite the compound.

Down that street we found Margaret Diane, sitting on the curb out front of the house where she has worked for many years.

She remembered him coming over for tea in younger, healthier times and how she chatted with him one day at the school where her daughter shared a classroom with his grandson.

“I was so happy that day. I shake his hand. I say ‘This hand… I’m not washing it!’” she said.

She is not ready to “release” Mandela, despite his frailty.

“I’m so sad about it,” she told me. “I know he’s very old, but we still need him.”

Those words — “we still need him” — are telling.

He left office in 1999 and stopped making political speeches years ago.

The last time Mandela was seen was in a disturbing video released in April.  He looked weak and disconnected, as several senior African National Congress politicians — including president Jacob Zuma — mugged for pictures beside him.

It was broadly seen as an ill-conceived effort to cash in on the Mandela name, with an election coming next year.

Most South Africans feel his successors suffer by comparison. Voter turnout has been steadily dropping, despite all the blood that was shed to win universal suffrage.

Now, some people wonder what might happen when he is finally gone. They wonder whether the old enmities, never far below the surface, will flare up again.

It’s a sensitive point among South Africans.

During Mandela’s December hospital stay, journalist Nathan Geffen wrote: “It is insulting to Mandela to suggest that his lifetime’s work will unravel at the end of his lifetime.”

But, the fears are real.

In search of a new angle to the current story, we drove to Hammanskraal — just north of Pretoria.

On a dusty roundabout in a neighbourhood called Mandela Village, there is a statue of him.

It is not a particularly good likeness, and there were only a few giggling high school students standing around, but we decided to get some video of it anyway.

Steve Magongwa stopped his truck as we were shooting and asked if there was news about the old man.

“I always worry when I see people here that something has happened,” he told us.

I asked him whether he thinks there might be trouble when Mandela finally dies.

He sighed and shook his head in concern.

“I’m sorry to say it, but I’d have to say ‘yes,’” he said

Although hagiography surrounds him these days, Nelson Mandela is no saint.

A balanced look at his life will find many shades of grey. But, he remains the man who chose to forgive despite 27 years in jail, who promoted reconciliation rather than revenge after the abuses of apartheid.

Even in a hospital bed, frail and far removed from public life, he remains a powerful symbol.