[iHitNews no.36 2/4/2018].
Most of her life dedicated to the struggle against Apartheid, a violent system, a violent struggle, more alone than together with her husband Nelson Mandela who was imprisoned from 1963 to 1990. She has been instrumental in years of mobilising campaigns for the ANC and the end of Apartheid. It made her a symbol of that struggle. That role was all fine when it was about community support (founding local medical clinics) and political attacks on the Apartheid regime, but became problematic after the mid 80s of last century when regime violence, counter-violence, spying and infiltration by the secret police, lead to distrust, suspicion, and accusation. Some suspicions of infiltration and betrayal proved to be right, others remained non proven or were simply false. Brutal reactions to state violence. Beatings, arson and murder became tools to forge ‘unity’. Most brutal the execution by burning people alive, with car tires in flames around their neck (necklacing). Winnie Mandela refrained from calling a halt to such methods, she even endorsed it.
13 April 1986 video recorded statement in Munsieville, South Africa she said:
‘We have no guns—we have only stones, boxes of matches and petrol. Together, hand in hand, with our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country.’
Emma Gilbey, The Lady: The Life and Times of Winnie Mandela, London, Jonathan Cape, 1993, pp. 145–46.
[NB Violence was official ANC policy in those days. At its Kabwe Conference in Zambia in June 1985 Joe Slovo, chief of staff of ‘Umkhonto we Sizwe’, para-military wing of the ANC, affirmed that there was ‘No Middle Road’, and the only acceptable strategy was the revolutionary overthrow of apartheid. Quoted in “Trust in the Capacities of the People, Distrust in Elites” by Kenneth Good (2014), p.71]
This statement on necklacing, dating back to 1986, is one of the most quoted endorsements of disciplining violence against ‘traitors to the cause’ by Willie Mandela. It is not the only time – though – she said it publicly, as can be seen on this video of her speech for a crowd in Soweto which is most probably at the day of her return to Soweto in 1985, from which she was officially still banned. The image and sound quality of this video are very bad, and there is no proper source, but still it serves it’s purpose as a historical document of those times.
We seeWillie Mandela addressing a huge crowd, speaking in English, pausing after each sentence for a translation (could be Zulu or Sotho). Her discourse as show starts of with:
You are not going to fight this government with AK47s because you do not have any. We are not prepared for any reform of Apartheid. You can not reform sin. Apartheid is a criminal act against mankind. We are not able anymore to accept that criminal act by a minority…we are 30 million… Power to the People!…
It is often difficult to hear what she says…
…we have no arms but boxes of matches…
and then when you click the video-player once again there is the sentence:
With our necklaces we will liberate our country
It is in this suppressive atmosphere that the abduction, torture and murder of a young boy – Stompie Moeketsie – took place in 1988. The boy, 14 year old, was suspected of being a police informer and his abduction and murder was the work of the strong hand gang – and personal security force of Winnie Mandela – know as the ‘Mandela United Football Club’. It lead to several court cases against Winnie Mandela. In 1991 she was acquitted for the murder, but not for the kidnapping. It was proven that she had witnessed the torture of the boy before he was found killed. This was not the only case of civil terror during the 80s linked to Winnie. It hurt her public image. It also hurt her political career in post-Aparheid society. Attempts at reconciliation during hearings in 1997 failed. She did get government positions in the first ANC governments, during which there were allegations of corruption. Still she kept a large following among the ANC electorate. In 2009 she was second on the ANC list, after Jacob Zuma.
The depiction of Winnie Mandela in several movies tend to focus on the more glorious aspects of her life. Her role in the decades of struggle – some say – has been more important then that of her imprisoned husband Nelson Mandela.
It must be noticed that later in her live Winnie Mandela did condemn the outburst of communal violence against black immigrant workers from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the Congo in the year 2008 in the Johannesburg and Pretoria area. Violent xenophobic riots whereby necklacing, did appear again.
It is the old question of means and ends, if violent acts can be used for constructing a beter and peaceful society. It certainly is questionable if the Apartheid regime would ever have collapsed without counter-violence. Was it no the utter dangerous situation in the townships that made them into no-go-zones beyond direct Apartheid regime control?
Post Apartheid euphoria has long faded away and the question of tactics for change are posed again. The controversies about the role of Winnie Mandela in this proces of change – flaming up again at the moment of her death – will not come to any conclusion, the camps of those for and against her seem to be in balance. Still this debate may lead to reflection on the importance of finding ways of social change whereby means and ends are more closely related, some may call it a luxury to be able to do so. This I will illustrated by a citation from a review of a movie on South Africa, the ANC and the Mandela’s, “Long Walk to Freedom” by Justin Chadwick (2013), by Gugulethu oka Mseleku in the Guardian (several years ago), in which Willie Mandela’s apology of violence is noted and also explained:
The fact is that, for South African women, Winnie’s role was more fundamental than her husband’s. Though the world’s leading opinion formers have been all too keen to demonise her, Chadwick’s film is a reminder that Winnie, with the help of her daughter Zindzi, was largely responsible for perpetuating Nelson’s image as the embodiment of the liberation struggle.
More importantly, the Mother of the Nation suffered, not only because of Nelson’s incarceration, but also through her own constant arrests and torture. Despite the cowardly, misogynistic regime’s torment of a single mother and her daughters, Winnie remained strong and resilient in her defiance.”
The article also mentions the case of the murder of Stompie and reacts on it like this:
Our hearts bled for Stompie and his mother, and recognised the brutality of his killing. But we understood that the system she was fighting against was brutal and brutalising. Where was the reconciliation that had been so freely offered to Europeans, for Mama Winnie? After all she had been through, could Nelson and the ANC really not be reconciled to the fact that she had been fighting a war “by any means necessary”?
There are 428 comments on this article which you can read for yourself. I just cite this one (number 110):
Habakuk 3 Jan 2014 15:26
“Her reputation was damaged by such rhetoric as that displayed in a speech she gave in Munsieville on 13 April 1986, where she endorsed the practice of necklacing (burning people alive using tyres and petrol) by saying: “With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country.”
No thank you Winnie. Shove off.
And this one more moderate (Number 11):
Keo2008 3 Jan 2014 17:57 11 12 The writer is pointing out that Winnie hasn’t received the same clemency that has been enjoyed by other perpetrators of brutal violence during Apartheid. Personally I’m not so sure about this peace and reconciliation business and seeing thugs on both sides getting away with the most atrocious acts is sickening (and not just in South Africa…remember the Good Friday Agreement…?) but in the name of fairness I think the writer does have a point…
The full article can be found at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/03/long-walk-to-freedom-winnie-mandela-nelson
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ref. image elements:
(1) Photograph at top, Winnie during her seven year banishment and house arrest in Brandfort (free State) starting in 1977 (the house had no floor or ceiling, no running water and no electricity, no visitors allowed as well).
(2) The painting left under us by the artist Noel Hodnett (born in what was then Southern Rhodesia in 1949, later moving to South Africa).
http://www.noelhodnett.com/Stompie_info.htm
(3) Winnie Mandela is a 2011 drama film adaptation of Anne Marie du Preez Bezrob’s biography Winnie Mandela: A Life. The film is directed by Darrell Roodt, and stars Jennifer Hudson, Terrence Howard, Wendy Crewson, Elias Koteas, and Justin Strydom. Image Entertainment released the film in theaters on September 6, 2013
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie_Mandela_(film)
Film citic of the Guardian Ed Gibbs had this comment: “This syrupy biography of the former wife of Nelson Mandela seeks to sugar-coat South Africa’s complex history.”
the limping messenger 