In 1993, the South African general Constand Viljoen was plotting an Afrikaner guerrilla war against multiracial rule.
So Nelson Mandela invited him over for tea. When Viljoen and three other retired generals arrived at Mandela's house in Johannesburg, they expected a maid to open the door. Instead a smiling Mandela greeted them, shaking their hands and expressing his delight at seeing them. Then he invited Viljoen to his lounge for a private chat. “He asked me if I took tea,” Viljoen later told John Carlin, author of the new book Knowing Mandela (and contributor to this magazine). “I said yes and he poured me a cup. He asked me if I took milk. I said yes and he poured me milk. Then he asked me if I took sugar with my tea. I said I did and he poured the sugar. All I had to do was stir it!”
Speaking in Viljoen's language, Afrikaans, Mandela persuaded him that guerrilla war would lead nowhere. Instead, he urged him to stand for parliament in the multiracial elections. Viljoen left the house purged of warlike thoughts. “Mandela wins over all who meet him,” he told Carlin.