Mama Winnie’s dying wish
Funeral of ‘Mother of the Nation’ provides platform for meeting of minds between the ANC and the EFF
● The EFF is in exploratory talks with the ANC about a possible alliance.
The first signs of a visible warming in relations between the two parties were evident at Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s funeral yesterday, where there was a notable chemistry between rival leaders.
In his speech, President Cyril Ramaphosa made repeated efforts to reach out to EFF leader Julius Malema.
The ANC will need the EFF’s support to achieve a two-thirds majority in parliament to implement legislation allowing for the expropriation of land without compensation.
The Sunday Times has learnt that there have been informal discussions between senior leaders of both parties after MadikizelaMandela expressed her wish to them that Malema either lead a comeback, or that they co-operate in the national interest.
However, it is believed the move will not happen before the 2019 elections.
In his speech to a packed Orlando Stadium in Soweto, ANC head of elections Fikile Mbalula also beckoned the EFF back. He later told the Sunday Times it was “Mama’s last wish and it is right”.
Malema said yesterday he did not want to speculate on the possibility of a pre- or postelection alliance. But he told the Sunday Times after the service that he had spoken to Ramaphosa about what was necessary for co-operation.
EFF applause for Ramaphosa
Another senior EFF leader said there was no possibility of his party collapsing, but there could be co-operation after the election “based on certain fundamental principles”.
During his tribute, Mbalula said Madikizela-Mandela’s “children from the EFF” were at the funeral service. “We will ask them to come back home, because you said it yourself that they must come home.”
Addressing thousands of mourners, both ANC and EFF supporters, Ramaphosa said he would go to Marikana with the EFF leader as he was unable to fulfil Madikizela-Mandela’s other wish to take him there to “heal the wounds of the Marikana widows”.
Acknowledging Madikizela-Mandela’s wounds throughout her lifetime, Ramaphosa said: “As we continue to touch her wounds, we must be brave enough to share her life and legacy across our society and with the people she loved.”
Speaking directly to Malema, the president said: “Comrade Julius, yes the wounds you talked about were real, but today is about healing those wounds. It is only when you experience real pain yourself that you can recognise it in others and offer comfort.
“Shortly before her death, we had a conversation about her concerns, her worries and her wishes. She spoke of her deep desire for unity and the renewal not only of the movement that she loved dearly, but of the nation,” Ramaphosa said.
“Just as Mam’ Winnie has united us in sorrow, let us honour her memory by uniting in common purpose.”
When he began his address, Malema acknowledged Ramaphosa and called for him to be respected as “her president, the president of her [Madikizela-Mandela’s] organisation”.
EFF supporters who had earlier booed Ramaphosa when he was introduced applauded him when he spoke.
Red faces over ill-treatment
Ramaphosa apologised to Madikizela-Mandela for the ANC’s delay in honouring her. “As president of the ANC, I will be proposing to the national executive committee that the ANC award you the highest honour of our movement, Isithwalandwe. You deserve to be awarded the Seaparankoe,” he said.
Madikizela-Mandela’s poor treatment by the ANC was a strong theme at her funeral yesterday — and left some red faces.
Malema as well as Madikizela-Mandela’s daughter Zenani Mandela-Dlamini lashed out at the “sell-outs” who had in the past condemned Madikizela-Mandela but now “cried the loudest” at her death.
Among those Malema was referring to was Defence Minister Nosiviwe MapisaNqakula, who was one of the programme directors yesterday. She was one of 11 who resigned from the women’s league national executive committee as they couldn’t work with a “criminal”.
Madikizela-Mandela was suspended from the movement in 1995 after she accused the ANC of failing black people by not dealing with racism in the workplace.
Also on the NEC at the time was Baleka Mbete, who was also at the funeral.
In his fiery speech, Malema, who spoke off the cuff, said some of those who sold out to the apartheid regime were present at the funeral. “Mama, what is funny is that they cry the loudest.
“The UDF [United Democratic Front] cabal is here. The cabal that sold you out and handed you to the apartheid regime.
“Some of them who resigned from the executive of the women’s league because they said they did not want to be led by a criminal are playing prominent roles at the funeral today. We see you!” he said, in a clear reference to Mapisa-Nqakula.
The UDF publicly disowned MadikizelaMandela in 1989 when she refused to retract her controversial comment on necklacing or disband the Mandela United Football Club.
Paying a powerful tribute to her mother, Mandela-Dlamini said the pain that many had inflicted on Madikizela-Mandela “lives on in us”.
She added: “To those who’ve vilified my mother through books, on social media and speeches, don’t for a minute think we’ve forgotten. The pain you inflicted on her lives on in us. Praising her now that she’s gone shows what hypocrites you are. Why didn’t you do the same to any of her male counterparts and remind the world of the many crimes they committed before they were called saints?
“And as each of them disavowed these lies, I had to ask myself: ‘Why had they sat on the truth and waited till my mother’s death to tell it?’ I think their actions are actions of extreme cruelty, because they robbed my mother of her rightful legacy during her lifetime.
Anger at those who stayed silent
“I was particularly angered by the former police commissioner George Fivaz for cruelly only coming out with the truth after my mother’s death.”
She was referring to an interview Fivaz gave eNCA last week in which he confirmed that an investigation had found that Madikizela-Mandela had not been involved in the 1989 killing of 14-year-old Stompie Seipei. Speculation that she had ordered the murder because Stompie was suspected of being an informer had dogged Madikizela-Mandela until her death.
Mandela-Dlamini said her mother dared to take on one of the most powerful and evil regimes of the past century — and she triumphed.
Ramaphosa said in his speech that Mandela-Dlamini’s tears had “revealed Mam’ Winnie’s wounds”.
He added: “She wore the gaping wounds of her people. She had been left to tend her wounds on her own for most of her life. Left alone to fend for herself only caused her more pain. But she touched our wounds all the time. When we lost our loved ones, when people were in pain, overcome with anger, prone to violence, she came to touch our wounds. She bore witness to our suffering, she bandaged our wounds. We did not do the same for her.”
Earlier in the day, abaThembu acting king Azenathi Dalindyebo said in his speech that it was a pity Madikizela-Mandela was only being honoured when she was no longer alive.
“Our wish was to have her buried at the family home in Qunu. But we respect the family wish because she was bigger than belonging to us alone. It would have been more meaningful if she was honoured while alive‚” Dalindyebo said.
We will ask them to come back home, because you said it yourself that they must come home Fikile Mbalula ANC elections head