Two Bits: History will remember her kindly
Everybody loved Nelson Mandela, but the nation was deeply divided about his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who died on Monday at the age of 81.
The young, beautiful social worker from Bizana in Transkei played many roles in the course of her life: wife of the country’s most famous political prisoner, defiant unofficial leader of the struggle against apartheid in the 70s and 80s, a firebrand who preached extreme violence, convicted fraudster and, despite all that or perhaps because of all that, earned the title Mother of the Nation.
After serving 18 months solitary confinement in the late 60s, the National Party government exiled her to the remote Free State town of Brandfort in a bid to hide her from the world and ANC supporters. But that was a costly mistake, because she would not be silenced and she proved to be useful to the party, portrayed to the world media as the brave wife of an imprisoned martyr.
Eventually she defied the government and returned to Soweto, but the party struggled to control her.
She caused widespread outrage in 1986 when she told a rally that “with our boxes of matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country,” referring to the gruesome practice of murdering suspected informers with car tyres and petrol.
She formed the Mandela United Football Club, which was less of a sports team than a gang of young thugs who sought out spies and collaborators. The death in 1988 of 14-year-old Stompie Seipei was laid at the door of the MUFC and her personally.
Many more erudite and comprehensive histories of her life are being published in newspapers across the country this week, so it is worth remembering her visit to Stanger in October 1989 at the invitation of the Mass Democratic Movement, successor to the United Democratic Front, and the Release Mandela Campaign.
She and Nokhanya Luthuli, widow of Chief Albert Luthuli, led a march of more than 7 000 people through the streets of Stanger to the country club grounds, where a number of anti-apartheid speakers addressed a large crowd calling for the repeal of the Group Areas Act and other apartheid structures.
It is worth recalling that Nelson Mandela had not yet been released from prison and the increasing demands of mass rallies like this one, were pushing the National Party government into an impossible corner. People were in a defiant mood and would not take no for an answer.
Her visit and subsequent visits by leaders such as Walter Sisulu were significant in increasing support for the ANC on the North Coast, traditionally then a stronghold of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party.
Winnie Mandela now goes to join those leaders pictured above, most of whom have gone to a better place. Despite her chequered past, I think history will remember her kindly, as a powerful woman who played a crucial role in popularising the ANC and kept a beacon alight during the movement’s darkest days.
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The tradition of April Fool jokes is getting more and more difficult to keep up these days, when almost anything could pass for a joke, plus some people’s determination to take offence at almost anything, no matter how innocuous.
Most readers spotted our right-hand drive joke for what it is, being reasonably intelligent people. One man phoned and swore at me for apparently putting people’s lives in danger. Apparently he believed it and was offended that he’d been tricked, if only momentarily. Some people need to get a life.
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What’s the best thing about Switzerland? I don’t know, but their flag is a huge plus.
