Mandela chastises disgraced Cronje

Mandela chastises disgraced Cronje
REUTERS

GEORGE (SOUTH AFRICA), OCT 7: Nelson Mandela met disgraced former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje and chastised him for failing to tell the truth from the outset about match-fixing allegations.

``It is my duty to say to him `you have made a serious mistake ... In the fact that you did not right from the beginning confess everything that you have done','' mandela told reporters on Friday after a 45-minute meeting held at cronje's request.

``This is a young man who focussed the attention of the world to South Africa as far as cricket is concerned. The message I gave him is that a person can turn tragedy into triumph and he has that capacity.

``I wanted to encourage him without in any way excusing what he has done if these allegations are proved to be true. He can be a role model,'' former president Mandela added.

A haunted-looking Cronje did not say a word. Cronje, sacked as captain in April after allegations he had accepted bribes to fix international matches, admitted during public hearings in June to taking over $ 100,000 from bookmakers but denied actually throwing a game.

The meeting took place at the millionaire Fancourt Golf Estate where Cronje and his wife Bertha live outside the southern Cape Town of George whose claim to fame is being home also to former apartheid iron man PW Botha.

A representative of the Estate said the starting price for residential property was 3.5 million rand ($ 480,600). The Cronjes moved into their thatched house in April and have already paid it off.

Mandela, taking a weekend break at Fancourt with his wife Graca Machel, said he expected to be criticised by some people for meeting Cronje.

``I don't expect any reasonable person to criticise me because I have seen a young man who has fallen from grace,'' he said. ``I am not going to treat him as a leper simply because of the allegations against him.'' ``If those allegations are supported then I am sure he is prepared to take what is going to come,'' he added.

Judge King's enquiry is expected to resume public hearings in November and make a final report by early December.