10 minutes too late for Winnie
Daughters Zenani, Zindzi and Makaziwe all by Mama’s deathbed
ANC leader Jeff Radebe arrived a few minutes after Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had died at Milpark Netcare Hospital in Johannesburg .
Radebe recalled yesterday how a family member called his wife Bridgette on Monday and said they needed to come to the hospital as soon as possible.
“We arrived at the hospital at 2.45pm and she had died at 2.35pm,” he said.
“We found her with her two daughters Zenani and Zindzi as well as Makaziwe and other family members.
“It was by fate of God that her daughters, who are ambassadors, were in the country and with her when she took her last breath.”
Zenani and Zindzi were in London in 2013 when their father Nelson Mandela died at his Houghton home in Johannesburg.
Radebe said he saw how Zenani and Zindzi were devastated by their mother’s death and other family members were also in shock.
“I kissed her forehead and then did a military salute. As much as she was ageing, but I did not expect her to pass on so soon.”
He described Madikizela-Mandela as a leader who was defiant against the apartheid regime.
“We will recall many instances where Thursday April 5 2018
‘‘ We arrived at the hospital at 2.45pm and she had died at 2.35pm
she will go to the most volatile areas when police and military would have arrived to harass our people.
“She defended them. In the 1960s and ’70s, while some ANC leaders were either in exile or jail, she remained a hope to the people. The world adored her.”
Radebe recalled when he went to Jamaica with former president Thabo Mbeki, and that country’s prime minister asked why Madikizela-Mandela was not treated fairly in South Africa.
“At the stadium in Jamaica the people also asked about her. Here are people in Jamaica and they feel very strong about her. They appreciated her.”
Radebe said he and his family were supposed to have visited her this week after she had called his wife asking that they should visit.