Remembering Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
By Maggie Grootboom, 15thEpiscopal District TCR Field Representative
Our people have lost the voice of reason and a fighter for justice. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a beautiful, charismatic, and feisty woman was born in the Eastern Cape, in 1936 and was fondly known as Mama Winnie, an iconic anti-apartheid activist and politician. She moved to Johannesburg from Eastern Cape to study social work.
In 1957, she met a lawyer and anti-apartheid activist named Nelson Mandela and they were married a year later. As an anti-apartheid activist and politician, she held several government positions. A staunch member of the African National Congress, she served on the party’s national executive committee and headed its Women’s League.
Winnie Mandela retained popular support within the ANC over the years. She risked her life and everything else that mattered to her by standing up against the apartheid government. She was a strong and fearless voice in the struggle for equal rights and will be remembered as a symbol of resistance.
South Africa will never be the same again. The masses of our people have lost the voice of reason and a fighter for freedom and justice. This is a leader who kept the home fires burning when most prominent leaders of the liberation movement were exiled and jailed.
With her tenacity, relentlessness, and leadership, she kept the nation together under vicious circumstances. For her sterling work and sacrifices, our people bestowed her with the title and declared her the “Mother of the Nation.” She deserved this honour as she earned it in the trenches of our revolution when we fought a crime against humanity.
Winnie Mandela’s contribution to the struggle for liberation, human rights, and democracy in South Africa is unparalleled by many others in the world. Her commitment to the cause of justice and freedom never wavered, even in the face of unimaginable personal persecution and banishment by apartheid, and in spite of the pain, loss, and trauma that she was made to endure under the white racist rule. Her refusal to lose hope inspired millions to fight and hope for a free and democratic South Africa.
Mama Winnie was an ambassador and fierce defender of human rights. She did not tolerate gender-based violence and spoke strongly against it. She was the first leader to show up wherever there was any tragedy in a community around her. She did all this because of the love for the people of our country.
What made Winnie stand out was her stubborn refusal to be cowed into submission by apartheid agents’ soul-destroying tactics. Those tactics included detaining, trying, and sentencing Nelson Mandela and his colleagues such as the late Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, and other political activists to long jail terms. Ma Winnie herself was placed in solitary confinement for more than a year as well as being tortured, banned, and banished to the remote Orange Free State town of Brandfort; confined to a house with no floors, ceilings, running water, and electricity; and was never allowed to see more than one person at a time. Her husband, Nelson Mandela, had already been in prison for 13 years. What she made of her time in this remote town is something called heroic. She solicited the assistance of a local Indian doctor and set up a local clinic, crèche/ daycare, and feeding scheme for the underprivileged children in Brandfort. This was her home for nine years. Had she not been banned in Brandfort, Winnie would’ve been an unstoppable political force within the country.
The freedom that we enjoy today could not have been possible without Mama Winnie’s courage and commitment. She dedicated her life to fighting for the recognition of equality and the fundamental human dignity denied to millions for decades, both being fundamental human rights which are now enshrined in our constitution and enjoyed by all in this country.
Her marriage was not just to Nelson Mandela but to the struggle for the liberation of South Africa. We must forever carry on her struggle for the poor and marginalised in our societies.
She will be remembered for her heroism and dedication in the fight against injustice and oppression during the apartheid era and her continued fight against poverty. One of her powerful quotes that she will be remembered for is “They think because they have put my husband on an island that he will be forgotten. They are wrong. The harder they try to silence him, the louder I will become!” (1962)
The ANC Women’s League held a night vigil for Winnie Mandela at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Friday, 13 April, singing and praying throughout the night. She was laid to rest in full honour on the 14April 2018. Rest in power Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Hamba Kahle comrade. Lala Ngo Xholo, which means, “Go well, sleep in Peace.”
