South Africa has gone through a rather tumultuous time in the last 20 years, and one person who was caught in the thick it was Dr Tony Leon. Elected the leader of the Democratic Alliance just after the history elections in 1994, Leon had the opportunity to work with and against the late Nelson Mandela.

During his TEDxJohannesburg session, Leon recounted his time with Mandela, and related how Mandela did a number of things that were unexpected – which is applicable to South Africa right now.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have had many encounters with Nelson Mandela. A couple of days after he was released from prison, I was elected as the leader of the DA,” he told the TEDx audience.

Leon started his talk by describing how a student at Wits in the late 80s did something unusual and overcame his blindness by becoming a judge – despite being blind. Using the same reference, Leon explained how former president of South Africa FW de Klerk did something unusual and contrary to what his peers expected, by releasing Mandela from prison.

Bring it closer to home, Leon said that Mandela wasn’t a saint and he wasn’t perfect, but he too did something that nobody expected him to do.

“Mandela did what he knew he had to do. It’s not that he wasn’t a warrior for the ANC at the time, but at crucial times he put the country before the party. It inspired a country to be at peace with itself,” he said.

Leon recounted the fact that the then Natal province was hotly contested during the 1994 elections. As the ANC leadership started to release that they might not win the province, the leadership wanted to denounce the elections.

“Doing something that people didn’t expect, Mandela told them that they will do nothing except call it free and fair, and that they must be prepared to lose. He realised that you have to put the country in front of the party in crucial moments.”

The message that Leon wanted to convey to the captivated audience is that they can to implement the same attitudes to change South Africa.

“Each person that I described today, at critical moments went to do the unusual to make the country and the world a better place. You can do that in your own life to make the country better.”

Even though the country overcame the adversities of the past, Leon was quick to stress that the same can be applied now, but it needs to be updated for today’s society.

“I realised back then that there was something truly miraculous about what we did in SA two decades ago. But like any story, it needs to be renewed and refreshed. There are ways to address it that we do not succumb to power of corruption and approach it with hope and courage.”