SA :Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela – ANC failed to stand by her side during her legal troubles.

Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela OLS MP (born Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela; 26 September 1936 – 2 April 2018),also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist, second wife of Nelson Mandela and convicted kidnapper and fraudster. During her political career, she served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003,and from 2009 until her death, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC’s National Executive Committee and headed its Women’s League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the “Mother of the Nation”.

Mandela and Winnie February 25, 1990

Born to a Xhosa royal family in Bizana, and a qualified social worker, she married anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in 1958; they remained married for 38 years and had two children together. In 1963, after Mandela was imprisoned following the Rivonia Trial, she became his public face during the 27 years he spent in jail. During that period, she rose to prominence within the domestic anti-apartheid movement. Madikizela-Mandela was detained by apartheid state security services on various occasions, tortured, subjected to banning orders, and banished to a rural town, and she spent several months in solitary confinement.

In the mid-1980s, Madikizela-Mandela exerted a “reign of terror”, and was “at the centre of an orgy of violence in Soweto, which led to condemnation by the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa,and a rebuke by the ANC in exile.During this period, her home was burned down by residents of Soweto. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) established by Nelson Mandela’s government to investigate human rights abuses found Madikizela-Mandela to have been “politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the Mandela United Football Club“, her security detail. Madikizela-Mandela endorsed the necklacing of alleged police informers and apartheid government collaborators, and her security detail carried out kidnapping, torture, and murder,most notoriously the killing of 14-year-old Stompie Seipei whose kidnapping she was convicted of.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison on 11 February 1990

Nelson Mandela and winnie – visit Harlem June 21, 1990

The couple separated in 1992; their divorce was finalised in March 1996. She visited him during his final illness.As a senior ANC figure, she took part in the post-apartheid ANC government, although she was dismissed from her post amid allegations of corruption. In 2003, Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of theft and fraud, and she temporarily withdrew from active politics before returning several years later. Her biography Winnie Mandela: A life was written by Anné Mariè du Preez Bezdrob and published in 2003.

Death and funeral

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died at the Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg on 2 April 2018 at the age of 81. She suffered from diabetes and had recently undergone several major surgeries.She “had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year”.

In the lead-up to Madikizela-Mandela’s funeral, in a politically fraught environment soon after the ouster of former president Jacob Zuma, Jessie Duarte, a senior ANC leader, warned critics to “sit down and shut up”, with Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema saying that “anyone who accuses Mama Winnie of any crime is guilty of treason”.

Madikizela-Mandela was granted a “Special Official Funeral” by the South African government. Her public funeral service was held at Orlando Stadium on 14 April 2018. Planning for Madikizela Mandela’s funeral was largely handled by her daughters and Julius Malema, and the ANC reportedly had to “fight for space” on the programme. At the public service, ANC and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa “acknowledged” that the ANC failed to stand by Madikizela-Mandela’s side during her legal troubles.

 SOUTH AFRICA – June 14, 1958: Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela’s wedding photo. (Photo by Gallo Images via Getty Images/Avusa)

Julius Malema delivered an impassioned speech in which he criticised the United Democratic Front for distancing themselves from Madikizela-Mandela in the 1980s. Malema also criticised members of the National Executive Committee of the ANC Women’s League for resigning in 1995, because they regarded Madikizela-Mandela as a “criminal”. Madikizela-Mandela’s daughter Zenani attacked those who “vilified” her mother, calling them hypocrites. After the public service, her body was interred at a cemetery in Fourways in the north of Johannesburg during a private memorial service.

A number of ANC figures prepared to defend themselves against the allegations made at the funeral; however, the ANC urged “restraint”.

South African military personnel bring in the coffin at Orlando Stadium in Soweto for the funeral ceremony of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images