Mama Winnie, controversial even as she’s laid to rest

TODAY South Africans say a final farewell to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

But even at her funeral, the “mother of the nation” remains a controversial figure who continues to divide the country.

Over the past two weeks, Madikizela-Mandela has been seen as a Struggle hero, a woman who did wrong, or one snubbed by the very organisation she was fighting for.

For some of those mourners who will be gathering at her graveside today, this is a sore point, stretching back over a quarter of century.

“They were the hypocrites of the highest order,” said the leader of the United Democratic Movement, Bantu Holomisa, yesterday. He was referring to members of the Mass Democratic Movement and the ANC, in particular, whom he felt abandoned Madikizela-Mandela in her time of need.

These hypocrites, he said, were now praising her as a hero and attending her funeral.

The snubbing began, Holomisa, said with the kidnapping and killing of activist Stompie Sepei in the 1980s.

For this she received a sixyear jail sentence which she successfully appealed and was reduced to a R15 000 fine, and a suspended sentence.

No one, Holomisa said, was willing to pay her fine.

He did so. Later, when Madikizela-Mandela served in the first ANC government, she was axed from the cabinet on the pretext of having gone to Ghana without authorisation.

The main reason, according to Holomisa, was that she was seen as a populist and the leadership within her husband’s administration saw her views as dangerous. They found reasons to expel her.

“She led from the front. She was always there among the people,” said Holomisa.