The Nelson Mandela Foundation has lambasted President Donald Trump over comments the US leader made about South Africa’s anti-apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela.
Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, had in a new book claimed the US President made racist comments about Mandela.
In the book, which comes out on Tuesday, Cohen claimed Trump said the late South African president was “no leader”.
Cohen alleges that the president described Mandela as a poor leader, according to the Washington Post which reported on Saturday that it had obtained a copy of the book.
According to the newspaper, Cohen wrote that following Mandela’s death in 2013, Trump said: “Mandela fed the whole country up. Now it’s a shole. F*** Mandela. He was no leader.”
Cohen also alleged that Trump said: “Tell me one country run by a Black person that isn’t a shole. They are all complete fing toilets.”
The White House says the lawyer is lying.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation has said it did not believe that “leaders who conduct themselves in the way Mr Trump does are in a position to offer authoritative commentary on the life and work of Madiba”.
“Reflecting on leadership, Madiba once said: “A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.” We would recommend these words to Mr Trump for consideration,” the foundation said in a statement.
Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
He was the country’s first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election.
