Mandela’s eldest granddaughter turns back on ANC, vows never to vote for it – report

Former president Nelson Mandela’s eldest granddaughter, Ndileka, has reportedly expressed her disaffection with the ANC led by President Jacob Zuma, boldly stating she will no longer vote for her grandfather’s political party.

In an interview with News24 on Friday, Ndileka cited the current social grants crisis and the deaths of more than 100 psychiatric patients moved from Life Esidimeni centres in Gauteng as her “tipping points” that caused her to lose faith in the ruling party.

“This is how I feel. I am highly upset. And this is not a decision that has been made out of anger. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and it’s been a buildup.

“But the tipping point has been Life Esidimeni and the Sassa scenario,” Mandela was quoted as saying.

The 52-year-old said she had hope in the ANC’s policies, “which are very sound”, she reportedly said. But she “just couldn’t take it anymore” after she heard that Cash Paymaster Services – the SA Social Security Agency’s current service provider – had been exploiting grant beneficiaries information.

“When you try and source funding to do worthwhile projects in rural areas, you get frustrated, and you don’t win. Yet money is being wasted, billions of rand, if you look at the CPS scenario,” she said.

“For me it’s a problem of accountability: When you get certain departments not being accountable to the people.”

She told the news website it was “painful” to turn her back on the African National Congress, and she did not take her decision lightly.

She also said she begged to differ with people who think her grandfather would be disappointed by her decision.

“I get very incensed with people who think they knew my grandfather more than his own family did,” she said.

Ndileka is the oldest of the third generation Mandelas and is involved with the Thembekile Mandela Foundation, which does community upliftment work in the rural Eastern Cape.

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