What is your most fond memory orfavourite trait of former Presidentof South Africa Nelson Mandela?

He was not like other aspiring African leaders who were greedy and corrupt. He really did care about his people, the South Africans and wanted to help them get out of poverty. He helped to set up domestic programs which would employ some of these people. He also helped to build new schools and encouraged his people to get skills and go back to further their education. He ruled fairly and tried to work with his former enemies to build up his country. Given the fact that the British has kept him in prison for 27 years and did not treat him with kindness, it is even more amazing that he was able to forgive them.

His unbending attitude that apartheid had to end.

As an intelligent man and trained lawyer he could have gone to live in the US or Britain and earn a great deal of money and lived very comfortably. Instead he dedicated himself to the struggle to end apartheid. When he was jailed he told the court that he was "prepared to die" if necessary, instead he was jailed for life. When in jail he was given the opportunity several times to be released on the condition that he renounce the campaign to end apartheid. He chose to stay in jail rather than compromise and when released he forgave his captors and worked with the apartheid regime to bring about an end to apartheid and introduce democracy to South Africa.

After the way he was treated and abused and no doubt he saw many colleagues and friends in the movement get arrested, beaten and killed you might have expected some animosity from him, but he put those sentiments to one side to work for the greater good of establishing a new South Africa.

He was one of the most important leaders of the 20th century perhaps only comparable to Mahatma Gandhi.

He fought against a regime created by people that admired the nazi regime, who established a system of segregation by your ancestry.

Perhaps he supported violence at the beginning, but in the end Mandela knew how to give freedom to the oppressed and how to erradicate the fear that "white people" for a "black revenge".

He took advantage of his blue blood (he was a descendant of one of the Tembhu kings), become a lawyer, developed a sense of how to use the system against the own system and married a woman that that was a natural leader for the movement overseas. He carefully constructed himself into a symbol.

I suppose that his greatest contribution, was to show that it was possible to join together different people and to give different treatment to those who are different looking forth to have a peaceful society.

Maybe he gaves us hope and showed that dreams can be materialized in a better society.

I will never forget what happened at his memorial service. Check this youtube video: http://goo.gl/CUXm4h

He ended apartheid.

He was smart enough to forgive his enemies.