A few months ago a Facebook page attracted much criticism for warning that, â€œThe day Nelson Mandela dies would trigger the mass killings of many non African South African citizens.”

‘South Africans in the UK’ warned, â€œPrepare to protect your families. Plans have being made by South Africa’s Communist Party to slaughter all whites in the country upon Mandela’s death. One of the operations planned entails 70,000 armed black men transported to the Johannesburg city centre within an hour in taxicabs to attack whites.”

â€œSources say most blacks in the country are aware of the plans. When racial disputes occur, blacks often tell whites, ‘Wait until Mandela dies’.”

After advising South Africans not to panic, the pessimistic poster recommended ensuring they have fuel in their cars, and to ‘stay hidden’.

This post was reminiscent of the sort of hysterical rumours about mass killing that went around prior to South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. But of course, nothing of the sort happened — it was a largely peaceful election and transition to democracy.

Most readers laughed off such scaremongering statements as ‘nonsense’ but now with Nelson Mandela in a critical condition in hospital, similar suggestions are once again surfacing in South Africa and beyond. In a recent interview, an Australian journalist asked Mail & Guardian Online deputy editor Verashni Pillay whether there were fears that there will be ‘race riots’ when Mandela dies.

While Pillay was incredulous, she didn’t hold it against the presenter personally because â€œhe was clearly just reflecting what was a common question in his home country, and perhaps the world: the idea that South Africa was a boiling pot of violent racial tension with one lone crusader planted between warring factions, brokering a tenuous peace.”

Pillay argued that, â€œThe work of reconciliation was not due to one man, or even one party.. that our democratic transition was the work of many groups, religious leaders, and, of course, the South African people themselves.”

She said South Africans often laughed at the stories written about their country and pointed out that although South Africa had high levels of crime “our racial tension is largely non-violent.”

â€œThe distorted notion that we would dissolve into race riots at the news of Mandela’s death is so unlikely as to be ridiculous, and that is precisely thanks to the work of Mandela and others. Do they think so little of the work he and others like him did to believe it still depended on them at this stage? No. True leadership — the sort of visionary leadership Mandela is famed for — leaves a legacy that outlasts its originator’s mortal flesh. It bequeaths an idea that can live on without him or her, an idea that will take root and flower. Those who suggest otherwise are far removed from the reality Mandela created that will long outlive him.”

Pillay concluded that Mandela would continue to do the same thing in death as throughout his life — bring us closer together.