Winnie packed gun in parly

The chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Thandi Modise, revealed that she and recently deceased anti-apartheid struggle veteran Winnie Madikizela-Mandela were carrying guns on their first day in parliament in the 1990s.

“We were called and some of us said ‘do you have gun safes’ and now we are blustering ‘where are the gun safes because we have guns’?

“There was no rule that you do not walk into this place without a gun‚” Modise said on Thursday, telling the story of her and Madikizela-Mandela’s first day in parliament in 1994.

She was speaking during a joint sitting of members of parliament from the NCOP and the National Assembly to pay tribute to Madikizela-Mandela and former Cabinet minister Zola Skweyiya, who both died last month.

The Madikizela-Mandela and Skweyiya families were present during the special sitting, clad in black as a sign of mourning.

Modise hailed Madikizela-Mandela as a “towering figure in our lifetime and a pivotal woman in our history”. “Her dedication to the struggle against apartheid and patriarchy has always been unshakable.” – Citizen reporter

We were called and some of us said ‘do you have gun safes’ and now we are blustering ‘where are the gun safes because we have guns’.

Thandi Modise NCOP chairperson