The Perfect StormWhy Winnie Mandela was right |
Sipho Ngcobo argues that a lot of what Madikizela-Mandela said is true to this day.
JOHANNESBURG - Storm in a tea cup?
That's how South Africa greeted Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's outburst this week.
In an interview with Nadira Naipaul, the wife of novelist VS Naipaul, Madikizela-Mandela allegedly roasted her ex-husband and former President Nelson Mandela, calling him the shadow of a freedom fighter who first went to prison, who got a bad deal for black people on his release and the man who disgraced himself by accepting the Nobel Peace Prize along-side FW De Klerk (which she now denies).
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was not spared for his role in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The list of attacks is long.
The result: South Africa went beserk, basically describing her as a messed up and dangerous populist who is nothing but out-of-touch.
Well, it is difficult to analyse some of the comments she made, especially the more personal and family-oriented outbursts including Mandela's inaccessibility to his kids.
Frankly that is between Madiba, his ex-wife, his daughters and the whole Mandela family.
But a lot of what Madikizela-Mandela said is true to this day.
In fact it is a very simple matter.
She was asked if she was happy with the way things had panned out in South Africa and she said no.
"No," she said.
She was not happy and she had her reasons.
"Blacks have been economically betrayed. Nothing had changed for the blacks except that apartheid had officially gone," she said.
"Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically we are still on the outside. The economy is very much white. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded," she added.
But, let me ask you something. Did she lie? Is the above a fabrication or figment of her imagination?
I would say no. She did not lie. It is a sickening affair. Every time the economic plight of black people is raised as an issue, a section of South Africa cries foul. This section of people throws tantrums and dives straight into denial mode. But why?
Study after scientific study shows that blacks are in trouble economically. The recent study by the University of Cape Town's School of Economics shows that 95% of black people have slid into dangerous levels of poverty. We are the most unequal society in the world. Do you think that's funny?
In fact you do not even need science to prove this. You just need a pair of functioning eyes to see.
But how did blacks end up here. Yes, it's a product of history, a product of systematic and meticulous deprivation. A lifetime of humiliation. But it is also because blacks got a bad deal during the negotiated settlement. Now we are reaping the fruits.
In this unpopular interview Madikizela-Mandela makes other assertions.
"You have been in the township. You can see how bleak it is. Well, it was here where we flung the first stone. It was here where we shed so much blood. Nothing could have been achieved without the sacrifices of the people - black people."
Is this another lie, eh? Have you ever been to the township? Please get real.
"The ANC was in exile. The entire leadership was on the run or in jail. And there was no one to remind these people, black people, of the horrors of their daily reality when something as abnormal as apartheid becomes a daily reality. It was our reality, and four generations had lived with it - as non people."
Is this another lie, eh? Do you know what it was like?
"Were you not afraid?," she was asked during the interview.
"Yes, I was afraid in the beginning. But then there is only so much they can do to you. After that there is only death. They can only kill you, and as you see, I am still here."
What about this observation by Naipaul:
"I knew that the apartheid enforcers had done everything in their power. She had suffered every indignity a person could bear. They had picked her up in the night and placed her under house-arrest in Brandfort in the Free State where she spent nine years."
Another food for thought.
"The only worry or pain I had was for my daughters, never really knowing what was happening to them. I feel they have really suffered in all this, not me or Mandela."
The writer notes once more: Her daughters never really knew what was happening. Bad men went to prison. Their father was in prison. But he was not bad.
"Their anguish was unbearable to me as a mother, not knowing how my children coped when I was in solitary confinement."
Got that?
*Sipho Ngcobo is former deputy editor of Business Report and ex-managing editor of Enterprise Magazine. He was one of the original team members of Business Day when the paper was launched in May 1985. He was a correspondent at international news agency Dow Jones where he reported on markets and companies in the early 1990s. He has also written for such publications as the Sunday Times, the World Paper in Boston and was employed by the New York Times Group in the US between 1989 an 1991.
Write to Sipho Ngcobo: sipho@moneyweb.co.za
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