Unfortunately, Mandela never made it clear to his followers that the revolution had been abandoned, and they would henceforth have to settle for the fruits of gradualism. On the contrary, his last major address to the ANC faithful – at a party congress in 1997 – featured a call for “battalions of revolutionaries” to carry the struggle forward. Such talk left radicals like Julius Malema free to conclude that Mandela’s move towards the centre was a strategic feint, and that given his way, the old man would have supported the policies they now advocate – confiscation of white-owned land, mines and banks. There is an element of wishful thinking here, but Mandela certainly presided over the creation of a political culture that made a fetish of black victimhood, with blacks entitled to all manner of compensations for hardships endured under white rule. These ranged from free houses for the poor to civil service jobs for the working class and enormous riches for the lucky few – usually those stalwarts of the struggle with strong ANC connections.