Categories: South Africa

Yengeni ‘angry’ at Mbeki over Madikizela-Mandela statement

Published by
By Getrude Makhafola

African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee member Tony Yengeni on Thursday lambasted former president Thabo Mbeki’s criticism earlier this week of the late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s actions at the height of apartheid.

Yengeni was part of the party’s top brass led by Deputy President David Mabuza who visited the Madikizela-Mandela family in Orlando, Soweto, on Thursday.

He said negative statements had been made against Madikizela-Mandela since her death on Monday. Madikizela-Mandela, 81, died in the Milpark hospital in Johannesburg on Monday afternoon after a long illness.

“Comrade Thabo is an elder, and we expect much better from our elders. He should have known better and refrained from making such negative statements about comrade Winnie. I as a member of ANC and as her friend, am very angry about that… I will raise this in the ANC NEC that comrades restrain themselves from being negative,” he told journalists outside Madikizela-Mandela’s home.

Mbeki was shown in a televised incident in 2001, pushing Madikizela-Mandela away as she tried to embrace him at a rally in Soweto, knocking her cap off.

Speaking in a television interview on the life of the late anti-apartheid struggle icon, Mbeki said Madikizela-Mandela never listened to ANC leaders and disobeyed an order to disband her controversial Mandela United Football Club — notorious for necklacing people suspected to be police informers in the 1980s.

He said the anti-apartheid struggle icon was a “courageous activist” even though “she did wrong things”.

Yengeni said it was time to celebrate Madikizela-Mandela’s life, and not bash her.

“One should not beat up a man when he’s down…comrade Winnie can’t answer for herself, she can’t respond…so lets be careful about what we say, lets celebrate [her] life. Anyone who has issues [with Winnie] can raise them after the mourning period.”

http:////

For more news your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.

For more news your way

Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.

Published by
By Getrude Makhafola