How Mandela, his ANC and Barack Obama failed the Henry Ford Test

Henry Ford said that "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."

The problem is that Henry never realised that, one day, the media would do exactly that for the ANC, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama.

The media created a reputation for Mandela, based on what he was "going to do" for South Africa, even long before he was allowed to leave prison notwithstanding the fact that he refused to denounce violence until his predetermined date of death finally arrived, and just look at his legacy.

The media created a reputation for the ANC "freedom fighters", based on what they were "going to do" for South Africa, and just look at them now.

For the "Yes we can" man, Barack Obama, the media also created a reputation, based on what he was "going to do", even before he became president of the United States, and just look at the USA today.

One of the most important books ever written, "The Fourth Estate" by Joel Mervis, was only published in 1989, while Henry died in 1947 already. It came out too late for him to have read it before having made this statement.

In 1994 the ANC promised to build 300,000 a year with a minimum of one million low-cost houses to be constructed within five years. The ANC's Minister of Human Settlements promised in July 2014 that South Africa is about to become the biggest construction site in Africa and most probably in the developing world, because they were going to build 1.5-million houses in the next five years. During the 1999 election campaign the ANC promised to provide free electricity and water to the poorest households. The ANC is going to create 6 million jobs. The ANC is going to provide free healthcare and hospitalisation to all Black, Indian, Chinese and Coloured SA citizens and all illegal foreigners from Africa. (Sorry to inform you that whites, being of European origin, will not qualify.) The ANC was going to stimulate a 6% economic growth. In the run up to the 2014 general elections, the ANC promised a cleaner image and zero tolerance of corruption. The ANC promised better and free education for all. The ANC promised this and that and everything they've promised ended up as a disaster.

But in the end Henry Ford was right...

The media created a reputation for Mandela, for the ANC and Barack Obama, just to get them to power, but in each and every case they failed the Henry Ford test. All of them destroyed the reputations created on their behalf by the media, based on what they were "going to do", and today they all have the reputation of being failures.