Mandela’s opponents were Nazis (real ones,not neo-nazis, they spent World War II in prison for conspiring to turn South Africa over to the Axis) – which alone explains why South African Jews were prominent in the anti-apartheid movement. Mandela managed to not only take over the country (not all that hard, it was near collapse given the fall of communism and the near universal opposition to racism in the west), but to do so peacefully, convince his enemies to support him, and leave over a stable and democratic government (note he was never a “president for life” and always had opposition which wins elections on the provincial and local level). Someone such as Ben Gurious was a failure in that today’s Israel is hardly the secular socialist homeland he dreamed of. Churchill wanted to preserve an Empire which fell immediately. Mandela is probably closer to George Washington who established a democracy that would survive without him (assuming it does, but it looks optimistic).
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