Read: Mandela sister begs Ndileka not to abandon ANC

In the wake of former president Nelson Mandela’s eldest granddaughter Ndileka expressing her disaffection with the ANC led by President Jacob Zuma, boldly stating she would no longer vote for her grandfather’s political party, her sister in an open letter asked her to reconsider.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”. 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 thought 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.

In response, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela released an open letter on Friday calling her decision “heart-wrenching”.

Read the full letter below:

My dear sister Ndileka

I read of your heart-wrenching decision with empathy and understanding. I am sure this was not an easy step for you to take as the ANC has been the heartbeat of our family for many years. One can only imagine the many crises and challenges our grandfather uTatomkhulu Nelson Rolihlala Mandela lived through since joining the ANC in 1944.

uNkosi Dalibhunga demonstrated that the way to resolve conflict was through engagement and perseverance – not turning one’s back. The ANC does not belong to any individual or grouping and it is our collective duty to set our house in order.

We were saddened, as you were, by events that led to the loss of life in the Esidimeni tragedy. In the true spirit of our struggle, proud family history and responsibility towards our nation, there must be accountability for such gross neglect and dereliction of duty. The ANC has correctly expressed sympathy with the families of the deceased and called for appropriate action to be taken. It is indeed a blight on a proud record of providing primary health care to millions over the past two decades of democracy. The preventable loss of just one life is one too many and we must ensure that pressure is brought to bear so that the innocent lives lost were not lost in vain. Nobody is above reproach.

The facts of the social grants crisis are a matter of public record and must and will receive the attention it requires. I can understand that you are upset at what we have been reading in the public space. However, I want to assure you that the grants will be paid to the nearly 17 million recipients. That, in itself, is a great achievement of our democracy and in no small measure to the credit of the ANC.

In addition, I want to bring it to your attention that the instruments introduced by the ANC government to deal with such crises remain vigorously intact. We have a functioning cabinet, organs of state and judiciary and nobody is above the law. Again, uTatomkhulu demonstrated his willingness to subject himself to this legal process in his lifetime.

I call on you Mafungwashe wasekhaya to reconsider your decision. Please do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. What we are dissatisfied with in the ANC it is our obligation to set right. Abandoning the ANC does not serve the people of South Africa; it only serves to weaken the ranks of those who want to restore our beloved organisation to the pride of place it deserves, and to strengthen the hands of those for whom democracy is anathema. The prophets of doom – they who yearn for the apartheid days of yesteryear and the perpetuation of social, economic and political supremacy, who have no loyalty to our struggle – will rejoice in finding a new voice and feeding off the negative publicity that is generated.

My plea to you, Sis’ Ndindi, is to be part of the effort to breathe new life into the ANC and re-inculcate the values and principles that secured our democracy. We are reminded of the wisdom of Comrade Ahmed Kathrada when he said in December 2016: “We are heartened that from within the ranks of our movement there are leaders like Madiba, with credibility, accountability, commitment to the people of SA and foresight. They are leaders who, like Mandela, are ahead of their times. Such leaders are able to rejuvenate and modernise the ANC so that it can meet the needs of the 21st century, while still valuing its old and wise traditions. Such leaders have been unafraid to put their positions to the test.”

It is my hope that you, my sister, will be remembered not for turning away when the house was on fire but for following the advice of our wise elder and helping to rejuvenate and modernise our political home, the ANC.

Nkosi Zwelivelile

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