Self-serving sentiments

Gaye Derby-Lewis’s sentiments about Winnie Madikizela-Mandela are self-serving, driven by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC’s) refusal to pardon her late husband and Janusz Walus for the murder of South African Communist Party stalwart Chris Hani (The truth about Winnie, April 18). The claim of a political assassination by the duo was correctly rejected by the TRC because the Conservative Party denied having given them instructions to carry out the murder.

Gaye and Clive Derby-Lewis were hugely surprised when white folks did not rise in a racial civil war against their fellow black citizens following Hani’s heinous murder.

On the other hand, Madikizela-Mandela was tortured by the apartheid government, including being held without trial several times and being held in solitary confinement for more than 400 days in one spell. Her failings as a human being were mitigated by her inhumane treatment by the apartheid government.

Gaye Derby-Lewis has an issue with the reduction of Madikizela-Mandela’s sentence to a fine of R15,000 for kidnapping and abduction by the Supreme Court of Appeal. However, this pales into insignificance when compared to the death sentence her husband received for Hani’s murder being commuted to a life sentence.

Jeffrey Mothuloe Via e-mail