A veritable symphony of Sisulus
● Earlier this year she got the T-shirt — and now that other struggle icon who would have marked her centenary this year can add an orchestral symphony to her name.
On Thursday evening Johannesburg’s Linder Auditorium played host to the sonic unveiling of Ma Sisulu Sinfonia, which its composer, Bongani Ndodana-Breen, describes as a “poetic meditation on the personal traits of an extraordinary woman”.
Part of a springtime concert series by the Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal philharmonic orchestras, the musical night drew a crowd of heavyweights from business, the judiciary and politics.
Walking into the hall, the first person I see is Wendy Luhabe, who, as one of the land’s leading business people and the wife of former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, straddles two of those spheres.
Wendy looks suitably regal in a richly hued Senegalese boubou as she greets me and photographer John Liebenberg before we head into a short media conference to find out more about the concert.
It is there that I find former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke and the man who this year became a dollar billionaire, Saki Macozoma, board chairs of the Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal orchestras respectively.
They’re joined by Bongani the composer and Bongani Tembe, who as CEO and artistic director of both orchestras was responsible for putting together the production, led by US conductor William Eddins and featuring Asian-American violinist Rachel Lee Priday.
Finishing off the panel is Max Sisulu, the eldest of Albertina and Walter Sisulu’s children, and his wife Elinor, who this week released an abridged biography of the activist and nurse.
As we head out into a reception room where waiters proffer typical cocktail fare — spring rolls, beef skewers — I ask Max if he misses his gig as speaker of the National Assembly, which he left in 2014.
“I don’t even speak at home. Now she’s the speaker of the house,” he jokes, pointing to his wife.
I greet Max’s niece, Ayanda Sisulu, who is charged with digitising the Sisulu family’s photographic records, and TV personality Minnie Jones, who scuppers those bun-in-the-oven rumours, saying:, “It’s not like you can wake up in the morning and be pregnant.”
The night’s performances open with the Bacchanale by Camille Saint-Saëns and a Brahms concerto, in which Rachel Lee, in a glittering nude-coloured gown, shines.
For someone who prefers gqom to the classics, I am blown over. While I’m still beaming at the orchestral treat during the interval, in walks someone who undoubtedly is SA’s most stylish woman in politics, Ayanda’s mom, Lindiwe Sisulu, who you will know as our minister of international relations.
The room lights up, with Max exuberantly hugging his sister and everyone making a beeline to greet the woman who many of us had hoped — sorry DD — would be the land’s new deputy prez.