Winnie’s visit to Boipatong remembered
Icon’s tears etched in minds of many
“Enough is enough”, these are the words that Maria Mosoetsa remembers coming from the late Struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on the day 45 people were massacred in Boipatong in the Vaal.
Mosoetsa was only 14 years old when Madikizela-Mandela visited the township to assess the murder scene where over 300 armed men from KwaMadala Hostel in nearby Sebokeng stormed the township on June 17 1992.
Her brother, Samuel Mosoetsa, was hacked to death on his way home from work, while her uncle, Benjamin Mosoetsa, was killed in their family home.
Mosoetsa said she remembered the thick smell of blood in the air while families scrambled to get those who were injured to hospitals and bodies of their loved ones to mortuaries.
“She told us to be strong and said ‘enough was enough’. She said she would be organising to arm the community because we were attacked for no reason at all,” Mosoetsa said yesterday.
The 40-year-old said she always saw Madikizela-Mandela’s strength on TV, but did not expect her to weep at the carnage caused by the attack.
According to Mosoetsa, the anti-apartheid veteran visited some of the families whose houses were attacked during the massacre.
“To see such a powerful person humbling herself and mourning with us, to see her crying when she was with some of the families is an image that will stay with me for eternity. She was a strong person, but at that moment she felt the pain and vulnerability that we felt,” she said.
Mosoetsa’s elder sister, Ouma, said Madikizela-Mandela’s compassion made it easier for them to come to grips with the events of that day.
“You could see she cared. She was the first person of power that came to visit us, less than a few hours after we lost our kin. To us, that showed real leadership and embedded a sense of hope that things were going to be okay,” Ouma said.
She explained that Madikizela-Mandela returned to the township on the day her uncle and brother were buried.
“I remember seeing her at Boipatong Stadium and how everyone hung on every word she said. We were hypnotised because Mama Winnie spoke of the struggles that we faced and promised us that things would be okay in the end,” she said.