The death of an apartheid activist
WINNIE MadikizelaMandela, the former wife of the revered Nelson Mandela, has died. Her death once again focuses attention on the racial tensions still bubbling away in the Republic of South Africa.
A firebrand as a young woman, Mrs MadikizelaMandela (Madikizela was her surname at birth) left a mixed legacy over which historians will ponder.
She has been described as charming, intelligent, complex, fiery and eloquent, but was best known for her fight against apartheid with her famous former husband.
The second wife of Mr Mandela, Mrs MadikizelaMandela was one of the few remaining representatives of the generation of activists who led the fight against apartheid. Her often negative image abroad contrasts with her deep and longlasting popularity in her homeland.
Within South Africa’s poor and dispossessed millions, she had a natural constituency and those who followed Mr Mandela could never ignore the broad support she also commanded.
When they married, Mrs MadikizelaMandela was in her early 20s while Mr Mandela was 39 and a father of three. Within a short time, Mr Mandela was forced underground and eventually arrested.
Mr Mandela eventually spent 27 years on the notorious Robben Island penal settlement and his then wife was regarded as a conduit through which Mr Mandela would pass on messages to followers who hungered for any news.
However, Mrs MadikizelaMandela’s visits were rare and she was never allowed any physical contact with her husband.
In what seems a continual trend for top leaders of the African National Congress, Mrs MadikizelaMandela became embroiled in accusations of extreme brutality towards suspected turncoats, including when she ordered the kidnapping of a 14yearold boy who was beaten and later had his throat slit by members of her personal bodyguard — the Mandela United Football Club — in 1989.
During her husband’s incarceration, Mrs MadikizelaMandela was herself tortured and subjected to repeated house arrest. She was kept under surveillance and, in 1977, was banished to a remote town.
The experience of more than a year in solitary confinement changed her, brutalising the young activist and teaching her how to hate.
Following her release, Mrs MadikizelaMandela turned to more extreme measures of reprisals, using the infamous ‘‘necklaces’’ of tyres filled with petrol, placed around the neck of an alleged offender and set alight.
Only in 1997, at the behest of Archbishop Desmond Tutu at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission did Mrs MadikizelaMandela offer an apology for events of the late 1980s.
Mrs MadikizelaMandela remained a polarising figure until her death, admired by loyalists who focused on her contribution to ending apartheid, and critics who saw her flaws. Few could ignore the unsettling contradictions in her life.
Her death brings back to focus the ongoing struggle in South Africa for equality.
The ANC is still a troubled organisation and the recent election of Cyril Ramaphosa as the president of South Africa is not easing global tensions.
Although a disciple of Mr Mandela, Mr Ramaphosa continues to talk about taking over the remaining whiterun farms — by violent means if all else fails.
Mr Mandela captured global empathy on his release as he preached a road to a peaceful transition to black rule. Those who have followed have taken a more violent and extreme path. There will still be those who favour the noholdsbarred approach of Mrs MadikizelaMandela rather than that of her former husband.
Her death provides an opportunity for a new start for the ANC, and its supporters but there seems a reluctance to move on to a path of reconciliation.