Worshipping Winnie . . . model Naomi joins the funeral thousands
TENS of thousands of South Africans packed a Johannesburg stadium yesterday for an emotional, noisy and openly political state funeral for anti-apartheid activist Winnie Mandela, the former wife of statesman Nelson Mandela.
Among the mourners were Britain’s Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa, Ben Llewellyn-Jones, and model Naomi Campbell.
Mrs Mandela, who died on April 2 aged 81, had continued to live in the suburb of Soweto, less than a mile from the Orlando stadium where yesterday’s funeral was held – and where she had controversially campaigned during the worst years of apartheid.
Her coffin lay draped in the South African flag and the venue was packed with the black-clad members of her extended family alongside party political groups in their signature colours and people from the poor local community where she lived.
Crowds danced and sang and Mrs Mandela’s daughters Zenani and Zindzi shouted ‘Power to the people!’ – their mother’s lifelong battle cry – when they spoke from the podium.
Zenani, who is South Africa’s ambassador to Argentina, said to cheering and applause that the Mandela family had spent many years in ‘profound dismay’ at lies told about her mother and that she had been subjected to a prolonged smear campaign linked to the death of a teenage boy in the 1980s.
In an interview on South African television last week, former police commissioner George Fivaz said he had carried out a full investigation into the 1988 murder of 14-yearold Stompie Seipei, who was killed as an informer to the apartheid regime, and found no evidence that Mrs Mandela had been involved.
Zenani, in tears, told the crowd that her dream of the truth being told had finally come true.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is overseeing a move to amend South Africa’s constitution to include the expropriation of farmland, said that shortly before her death, Mrs Mandela had told him of her desire for renewal: ‘She wanted us to heal the divisions in our society. She wanted land to be returned to our people.’
Family friend Udo Froese, who attended the funeral, said: ‘Mama Winnie would have loved today’s speeches and fighting talk. The stadium was packed. It was uplifting and sad at the same time.’