Blog: 'What is South Africa without you?'

A sea of faces look up at the medical clinic in the heart hospital in Pretoria. Groups of people sing and clap while others come to place flowers and notes. It's hard to move as there is such a massive crowd. Hundreds of camera people and reporters, including me, are trying to capture the energy.

I see a quote on the wall put there by some children that reads: "What is South Africa without you?". This question now plays in two ways. In one it's asking what South Africa would have been without Madiba, and in the other it's questioning the future of the rainbow nation without her founding father.

The first answer is pretty obvious. It would certainly not be this proverbial land of milk and honey where one man's vision and belief brought together a people torn asunder by one of the world's most cruel political yokes- racial segregation sanctioned by the state.

The second answer is more complicated. It raises another question: Is Mandela's legacy strong enough to keep the spirit of Ubuntu alive? Today South Africa faces many challenges. Unemployment stands at nearly 50 per cent, crime is rampant, there have been strong allegations of corruption both in politics and in the police force, large numbers of people live in poverty while the economic growth has slowed. Public services are either strained or non-existent in many places and xenophobic violence is on the rise.

Yet it's only a 20-year-old democracy. It threw off a three hundred year legacy of segregation and cruelty with love and compassion. It rose from the ashes of apartheid to become multiracial and cosmopolitan, and it has a relatively free press and a society where freedom of speech is not yet infringed on.

Millions of visitors come every year from around the world and only leave with smiles.  As a transplant of just five years, I always feel welcomed and accepted. All this because one man had a vision despite impossible odds. He saw the world as a place where everyone stood as equals holding hands and helping each other.

Standing near the hospital walls I am told by an old lady that she loves tata. A young Nigerian man tells me,"If it were not for Mandela I would not be here in South Africa. I would not have this life. I love him because he made this possible. Clearly, Mandela's importance reaches far beyond just being a democratic South Africa's founding father.

Another man says to me, "Without Madiba, I would not be standing here talking to you on camera, he has given so much for us, it's time now for him to be at peace, be held in God's arms gently".
A child tugs on my coat to say, "I want tata to get well."

As voices rise around me both in prayer and praise, I recall a quote Mandela had once said, "It's only impossible until it's done." I add my own words to the wall, "I hope the universe is keeping you pain free, I hope it's keeping you peaceful, and I hope if you want to live, you do, and if you want to go...leave in love".