The truth about Winnie
I refer to your editorial, which was a commendable effort to try and insert some equanimity into the orgy of debate about the history and role of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (Framed from the grave, April 17). Clearly, there is a huge division in SA as to her activities, and whether this reporter or that former National Party spy was active in distorting the narrative. But some things are irrefutable. Carefully reading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC’s) report and, more importantly, the testimony given by witnesses, will reveal certain facts that give clarity to some important matters.
Certainly, the security police monitored Madikizela-Mandela’s movements and her activities, nefarious or otherwise, and they tapped her phone in Soweto the night she was purportedly in Brandfort, as declared by her defence advocate, George Bizos. This was an important night because it was the night Stompie Sepei was almost killed. He was badly beaten and brain damaged and in need of medical care, and was taken to the rooms of Dr Abu Baker Asvat on January 1 1989. Asvat declared the boy would have to be hospitalised, but Madikizela-Mandela did not act on this advice. The doctor was murdered a month later, on January 27.
Policemen were prepared to give evidence regarding her presence in Soweto that fateful night, but their evidence was never presented to the TRC. TRC records show clearly that the police were told to “leave her alone”, and one policeman told the TRC she was virtually untouchable.
I was in the Pretoria Women’s Prison from April to June 1993 at the time her sentence of five years for the kidnapping of Stompie was being reassessed by the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein. I asked a senior staff member of Correctional Services (“DRC”) where they would be putting Madikizela-Mandela when she came to prison. I was told she wouldn’t be coming. “DRC” and possibly half the government knew she would never go to prison, and her five-year sentence was subsequently reduced to a R15,000 fine.
Former Democratic Party MP Harry Schwartz told an American publication she would never go to prison because the country would not be able to handle it, especially as her husband was being groomed for the presidency. The attorney-general at the time, Klaus von Lieres, clearly closed the book on any damaging evidence against Madikizela-Mandela being put before the TRC at that sensitive time.
Given the wealth of testimony presented by the parents of many young boys who were abducted by the Mandela United “Football Club” and who subsequently disappeared (and whose bodies were later found), Madikizela-Mandela’s final wrist slap from Archbishop Desmond Tutu is something to ponder.
A thorough read of the TRC evidence should settle a lot of the speculation about MadikizelaMandela’s life. If people find justification for her behaviour, that’s their prerogative, but the facts from both sides of the spectrum should be on the table for scrutiny.
Gaye Derby-Lewis
Via e-mail