The night Madiba died

In perhaps the best demonstration of the legacy left by Nelson Mandela in South Africa, luxury car dealers, the Daytona Group, celebrated its tenth year in Umhlanga on Friday Dec. 5, as South Africa's first democratically elected president, died peacefully in his house in Johannesburg.

Thanks to his legacy, the showroom boasted all colours and creeds, all of them able to dream or scheme of one day also owning one of the very expensive mobile status symbols sold by Daytona.

The star of the show was the R8,2 million Rolls Royce Wraith, which the new owners, Durban’s infamous developers and most ardent car lovers, Sbu and Shawn Mpisane, were happy to share with the fans. This author was one of the fans who queued to
push and pull buttons and deeply inhale that pure smell of luxury that can only be made by acres of tanned cow hides. 

Founder and CEO of the Daytona Group Justin Divaris thanked the guests for helping to group to grow and said Durban, which he said is a key market for the group where the clients could expect a lot of new models next year.

But getting back to Madiba and his real legacy - USA President Barak Obama described this legacy as "a South Africa at peace with itself that is an example to the world".

I like to think it is a bit more than peace. I think it is equal opportunity. This is gave the Mpisanes the gap to exercise their undoubted business skills, even if many claim it was more tenderpreneurial than entrepreneurial. 

Samiksha Mungroo thinks the Aston Martin
Volante S is quite pretty. 

This equality is why young Samiksha Mungroo, on holiday in Umhlanga from Johannesburg, could sit in the Aston Martin Volante S  and dream of one day owning a car like it ‘because it is quite pretty’. 

Lungile Mthyane and Nomfundo Ncwane
can now live Madiba's dream.

And best of all, this equal opportunity brought to reality the dream Madiba had, which he summarised from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the Rivonia trial, Pretoria Supreme Court, April 20 1964: “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." 

Two youngsters at the Daytona party, Lungile Mthyane and Nomfundo Ncwane 
can now live Madiba's dream.

For them and others who never knew what Apartheid was like, this reminder from Madiba from that same statement to the judge in 1964:

“Africans want to be paid a living wage. Africans want to perform work which they are capable of doing, and not work which the Government declares them to be capable of. Africans want to be allowed to live where they obtain work, and not be endorsed out of an area because they were not born there. Africans want to be allowed to own land in places where they work, and not to be obliged to live in rented houses which they can never call their own. Africans want to be part of the general population, and not confined to living in their own ghettoes. African men want to have their wives and children to live with them where they work, and not be forced into an unnatural existence in men’s hostels. 

Thanks Madiba. We are living the dream because of you.