PHOTOGRAPHY��ALEXANDER�JOE/AFP/GETTY�IMAGES��REX�FEATURES
door. Soon, other black people
followed her. She harassed the
authorities to install indoor plumbing,
and set up a feeding station for the
hungry in her home, and a medical
centre in a church.
After eight years, Winnie was
finally released from exile and
returned to Johannesburg. She
regularly made herself available for
press interviews, fuelling growing
support internationally for the
release of Nelson Mandela and the
end of apartheid. As pressure
mounted on the government,
Winnie’s dream of being reunited
with her husband grew closer. She
wrote to him, “The love that exudes
from behind those cruel walls simply
overwhelms me, especially when
I think of those who in the name
of the struggle have been deprived
of that love.”
Yet, as their paths were about
to meet after nearly three decades of
separation, they began to grow apart.
Winnie’s experiences had made her
angry and defiant. She wore
military-style outfits and, according
to Nelson’s biographer Anthony
Sampson, “appeared to sail into dark
storms”. In 1985, she said in a speech,
“Together, hand in hand with our
boxes of matches and our necklaces
[a tyre set on fire around an enemy’s
neck] we shall liberate this country.”
It was a provocative statement, in
stark contrast to Nelson’s calm
approach. Winnie claimed the remark
was taken out of context. But it fed
the furore that followed.
BEGINNING�OF�THE�END�
Winnie had always cared for orphaned children, and
in 1985 she invited members of the Soweto Youth
Congress (a group of teenage anti-apartheid activists)
to stay with her. The so-called Mandela United
Football Club (MUFC) became her bodyguards, and
were rumoured to meter out violent beatings to
anyone they viewed as a traitor at the request of
Winnie. Allegedly a common punishment was the
carving of the letter M on the torsos of the ‘guilty’.
Winnie’s downfall began in 1988 when 14-year-old
Stompie Moeketsi was found murdered after
A YOUNG NELSON
DEFENDED THOSE WHO
BROKE APARTHEID LAW
“Winnie was convicted
of kidnapping and
being an accessory
to assault”
NELSON MANDELA
RECEIVING THE NOBEL
PEACE PRIZE IN 1993
allegedly being accused of being a police spy by
Winnie. Jerry Richardson, one of Winnie’s bodyguards
was convicted of the murder, while she was convicted
of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault. Her
six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine and
a two-year suspended sentence on appeal.
Tragically, after decades of mutual support and
love, the cracks between Winnie and Nelson were
deep. Despite her smiling presence at his side as he
left jail in February 1990, her future as South Africa’s
first lady was doomed. Although he thanked her for
◆ After evading authorities
for 17 months, in 1962
Mandela was finally
captured and sentenced to
life imprisonment for
sabotage and other crimes.
Eighteen years was spent on
the notorious Robben Island
where he was forced into
hard labour in a lime quarry.
Mandela was allowed one
visit and one heavily
censored letter a month.
He didn’t see his daughters
again until his eldest was 15.
◆ Thanks to growing
international support
for the end of apartheid,
Mandela was released in
1990 after 27 years in prison
and became the hugely
popular president of his
country in 1994. During
his five-year term, he
successfully led his country
her devotion and support, they
separated two years later and
divorced in 1996 on the grounds that
Winnie had been unfaithful with her
young personal assistant, lawyer Dali
Mpofu, which the two denied.
During their separation, Nelson
won the election and became South
Africa’s first black president in 1994.
Although Winnie was appointed
Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture,
Science and Technology in Mandela’s
government in 1994, she was later
dismissed following allegations of
corruption. Still popular with the
poorest South Africans, she was
elected president of the ANC
Women’s League in 1997. Yet
controversy followed her everywhere.
In 2003, Winnie was found guilty
on 43 counts of fraud and 25 of theft
for allowing her signature to be used
to secure loans for members of the
ANC Women’s League who did not
exist, and sentenced to five years in
prison. An appeal judge overturned
the conviction for theft, but upheld
the one for fraud, handing her
a suspended sentence.
Winnie refused to disappear. Still
hugely popular with South Africa’s
poor, she ran in the 2009 General
Election for the ANC party, and now
has a prominent position on
the ANC’s National Executive
Committee. Her supporters point
to her continued efforts to help
the country’s neediest, including
campaigning for better rights for
housing and immigrants.
Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob
published a biography of Winnie in
2003, Winnie Mandela: A Life. Seven
years later, she is not surprised to see the indomitable
73 year old still active in a public role. “She is an
extraordinary woman who has always taken her
responsibility very seriously and that is why she is
still working hard to improve life for South Africans.”
She hopes that, despite her sullied reputation,
Winnie’s legacy will not be forgotten. “I hope [in
the future] people will view her as a woman who
survived unspeakable trauma and physical torture,
over and over, and refused to give up her fight
against what she believed was wrong and unjust.”
2009: WINNIE WAVES TO A
CROWD AT AN ANC ELECTION
RALLY IN JOHANNESBURG
through the difficult
transition into a multiracial
democracy.
◆ In four decades, Nelson
Mandela has received
250 awards, including
the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1993. He launched a
global HIV/Aids campaign
in 2002 and continues
to support social justice
around the world.
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