MaSisulu ‘a true servant of the people’
Graça Machel delivers Centenary Lecture, recalls great contribution Albertina made to liberation
STRUGGLE veteran Albertina Sisulu did not only have the maiden opportunity to nominate Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected president of South Africa in 1994, she was the matchmaker; ironically, also in post-apartheid South Africa.
While the world knew that Mandela once said his widow, Graça Machel, make him “bloom like a flower” despite her reluctance to marry him at first, they’d been inseparable since they tied the knot on July 18, 1998. What Mandela did not tell the world is that Sisulu had a hand in Machel agreeing to the wedding.
This was revealed by Machel when she delivered the Albertina Sisulu Centenary Lecture at the University of Pretoria on Tuesday. She made the remarks while recalling her early encounters with Sisulu in 1992, especially the latter”s leadership qualities. “As a younger member of her generation, I consider myself immensely fortunate to have studied and learnt from her. Her life taught me what it takes to be a servant of the people and a true cadre of a liberation movement,” Machel recounts. She said she invited Sisulu to Mozambique in 1992 to brainstorm at events and explain the role of civil society in a multi-party system.
“She was then a co-chair of the UDF. I will always remember her keen intellect and her rich contributions to our planning sessions,” Machel said.
Later, she said she recognised Sisulu as a mother figure to her, saying both “she and Walter opened their arms and warmly welcomed me into their family. Walter was a close mentor to Madiba and I therefore found myself enveloped by their love. They became tender parental figures to me here in South Africa,” Machel said.
It was at this point that Machel revealed what prompted her decision to marry Madiba. “This was also a time when the Arch (Archbishop Desmond Tutu) was publicly making statements that Madiba and I should get married.
“MaSisulu did not make public statements. She would whisper to me and say: ‘When are you getting married?’ She was the biggest encouragement to me. It was then that I considered marrying (Madiba),” Machel said.
Apart from influencing her to tie the knot, Machel remembered MaSisulu as someone with a strong work ethic who had served communities with zeal as a nurse.
The Centenary Lecture was organised by the Albertina Sisulu Executive Leadership Programme in Health (Aselph) – an international collaboration between the Department of Health, the University of Pretoria, the University of Fort Hare, the Harvard Chan School of Public Health in the US and South African Partners.
The Sisulu family sees Aselph as a premier legacy project and feel affirmed by the fact there are 300 health managers who can proudly say: “We are Albertina Sisulu Fellows.”
In her lecture, Machel detailed some of the traumatic days of Sisulu’s life and the most prominent and hurtful event in 1941 “when her mother passed away, the white matron refused to allow her time off to go to the funeral, an act of cruelty that she could never forget and would often refer to in her later life”.
Another tragedy for Sisulu was the murder of Dr Abu Baker Asvat in 1989 in his surgery in Soweto. Sisulu had worked with Asvat since 1984 and the two were good friends.
Machel remembers: “Like Albertina, Abu Asvat had a deep hatred of injustice and oppression and was dedicated to taking medical services to the poor. “People were surprised at Dr Asvat, who was at the time the Health Secretary of Azapo, and MaSisulu, the co-president of UDF working together.
“They forged a strong relationship and served the community tirelessly, even opening up a feeding scheme and crèche for the local children in Rockville, Soweto,” Machel said.
She emphasised that MaSisulu saw beyond partisan politics, saying “this is one lesson of her life that we need to take close note of: she knew the value of working across ideological lines to benefit the greater cause of service, and achieve equality and freedom for her people”.
Machel urged South Africans to be like Asvat and MaSisulu. “Albertina loved Dr Asvat like a son and worked for him until he was brutally assassinated in his surgery, right in front of her very eyes in January 1989.
“She was heartbroken and distraught by this tragic loss and the occasion of his funeral was one of the only times in her life that this woman of fortitude wept openly in public.”
She also sang the praises of the nurses, especially retired nurses who attended the event, saying their profession was a “noble one; a compassionate calling of service providing comfort to the vulnerable and sick”.