Winnie Madikizela-Mandela speaks as if it was not the ANC collective that made the decisions that caused her to complain about Nelson Mandela, her ex-husband. She places all the blame squarely on his shoulders. She acts as if she was not part of the NEC that agreed to the principles that would lead to the formation a new South Africa. Apparently Nelson Mandela was a dictator who made every single decision by himself. Of course, that’s if what is reported is true.
I have always held Winnie Madikizela Mandela in the highest regard — I think most of us do despite what the media says about her. I couldn’t help but sympathise with her when former president Thabo Mbeki knocked her hat off her head when she arrived late for some ANC celebrations. I have not always agreed with her but I have always respected her struggle against oppression. I don’t know many people who would have been able to survive what she had to go through. Policemen barging down her doors as they pleased, humiliating her in front of her children. She has suffered untold humiliations. As much as Madiba was the symbol of oppression in jail, she was the symbol of resistance outside.
The mistake that Winnie Madikizela Mandela is making is that of approaching Nelson Mandela from the angle of a man who is incapable of doing wrong. It is as if she thought he was perfect and suddenly realised he wasn’t. Nelson Mandela puts this in perspective when he says of her, “She married a man who soon left her; that man became a myth; and then that myth returned home and proved to be just a man after all.” Perhaps she still sees him as a myth, a man who can do all things.
She tries to make him a mere man amongst the leaders of the ANC by the manner in which London’s Evening Standard claimed she criticised him. However, she achieves the opposite of what she was aiming for — by blaming him she places him above the other leaders because she says he alone is to blame. If she listened carefully to what he has said repeatedly, “I must not be isolated from the collective who are responsible for the success.”
The first government had to achieve certain things, political liberation first and try to avert any bloodshed that could possibly take place in the process of starting a new nation. It could not afford to be radical; radicalism has rarely led to stability anywhere. The second job of government was to bring the masses to the economic front; it didn’t really achieve it by that much, and it certainly did bring large amounts of black people to the middle class, but not enough. Sixteen years on, black people’s spending power now exceeds that of white people. She points out, correctly, that the economy is still in white hands. The struggle continues.
She is quoted saying “I kept the movement alive,” a few sentences later she says, “You all must realise that Mandela was not the only man who suffered.” We realise that and Mandela himself says that Winnie suffered a lot more than he did and there are thousands who suffered more than he did for freedom’s cause. If we look at what she said, here she is claiming sole credit. “I kept the movement alive.” The ANC and the people kept the movement alive. If anything, the movement and the people kept them both alive. Both Mandela’s cannot claim credit, they were symbols that we couldn’t have done without. We needed both. There couldn’t be one without the other.
“This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family. You all must realise that Mandela was not the only man who suffered. There were many others, hundreds who languished in prison and died. Many unsung and unknown heroes of the struggle, and there were others in the leadership too, like poor Steve Biko, who died of the beatings, horribly all alone. Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a burning young revolutionary. But look what came out.”
Another mistake she is making is that people don’t change. She remembers an angry militant young man going to jail, a man who was also the founder of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC. She thought she would meet the same fiery man but what walked out was a better man than the one who walked into prison, she didn’t know how to deal with him. He had an advantage in prison she didn’t have outside — the advantage of thinking in isolation, putting pieces together without being interrupted by the temptations of short-term goals to please the masses’ immediate needs. Nelson Mandela could put his emotions aside and think of what needed to be done for the greater good.
When we entered into a negotiated settlement, we agreed to things that ensured the unity of the nation. No one was happy with the outcome, the hallmark of successful negotiations — each side felt cheated. “When you negotiate, you must be prepared to compromise.” Compromise basically means being happy with being unhappy about what you agree to. That is what negotiations were. No one came out the outright winner during Codesa.
He realised that sacrifices had to be made, while she was thinking pay back. He came out a hero; she was painted as a villain after the Stompie incident. Their world-views couldn’t have been more different. He wanted a divorce, she didn’t. Now he was too good for her. It’s possible that these were the thoughts going through her head. I made him, his name survived because of me — he’d be nobody without me. This is how he thanks me? Of course, no one can claim to know what was going on in her head, I am making uneducated speculation.
Winnie is completely wrong. She speaks as if Nelson Mandela negotiated by himself, as if he didn’t have a team to work with, a team that came up with ideas, proposed them to the NEC and then presented to the apartheid government. She blames him alone for the ills of the current state of the country. This reminds me a little of the ANC blaming all that is wrong on Thabo Mbeki and taking credit for all that’s gone well.
Winnie reminds me of the bit in the Bible when Moses went up the mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments. He was up there for a long time — weeks — if my memory serves me. When he came back, the people had become impatient and they made a golden calf and worshipped it. Moses left his brother Aaron in charge and he built a calf in order to appease the angry Israelites. Upon descending, Moses slammed the stone tablet and smashed it to pieces. Moses would occasionally call the Israelites the stiff-necked people because they were never happy, never satisfied, always complaining. They would say Egypt was better.
Now I am not saying that we shouldn’t complain when we see that things are not going the way they should be. Nelson Mandela could have done a lot of things better, but he is the first one to admit that. He is a mere man. He didn’t lead South Africa alone. Is he beyond criticism? Of course not. He must be scrutinised and we should forever remember that he is not God. Having said that, I hope Winnie Madikizela Mandela didn’t say the things she is reported to have said.
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67 Responses to “Winnie is mistaken about Mandela”
Khaya, are you perhaps not downplaying the role that Mandela, and his reputation, played during the negotiation process? He, more than any person, embodied the struggle. He became the ANC. He could have therefore, in that capacity, done more for greater economic equality than he did. I think that’s why Winnie Madikizela-Mandela places so much blame at his feet.
Wow Khaya, it’s like you took all the thoughts that had been flying through my mind while sneakily reading stories unrelated to my work at work and put it in this piece.
Thank you for standing up for Tata Madiba, but in a way that emphasizes also the fact that as great as he is, he is still only human.
Khaya, this has got to be the greatest piece of writing I have had the privilege to read since the beginning of the year ! I have faith in young South Africans. Please, I would love to reference your arguments exactly when I respond to these revisionist arguments. Bravo !
Kholekile Tshunungwa on March 10th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
@Khaya - Since Mandela is not beyond criticism by your own admission,so what are your issues with Winnie? Do you want to prescribe to her how she should criticize her former husband? Khaya just accept that she chose to criticize her former husband not everyone. And that’s her choice!
Get with the plot, Khaya. Winnie’s been setting the stage for this assault on Nelson for 15 years. She and Julius are the new ANC ‘power couple’. Their vitriolic hatred for everyone who isn’t them makes them ideal mates.
Both are capable of changing sides in any argument, both attack others to deflect negative attention from themselves, both re-write history to suit the purposes of the moment.
Winnie had great promise once but she traded that for taking personal possession of the struggle (”I kept the movement alive on the outside”). The trouble with being at the top of the heap is that you make a bigger target than someone safe in the anonymity of the ‘collective’. It is Winnie who elevated herself above the ANC, above Mandela, and, ultimately, above the law in the torture and killing of Stompie and the terrorising of anyone who wasn’t an avid enough cadre to suit her.
Winnie did not want simple victory; she wanted vengeance through all-out civil war. That would have brought SA low very quickly and she have become the first female African dictator–a real coup for a paranoid, reckless, power-crazed, and ruthless personality.
Referring to Desmond Tutu as a ‘cretin’, however, has revealed the depths of her hatred of anyone who tries to hold her to account for her deeds. Another trait she shares with Juju.
The only question now is which one will rule the roost of SA come the ‘real’ revolution…
An excellent article. With the greatest of respect to Saints Mandela and Tutu I do believe that as a society we have erred on the side of ostensible forgiveness and superficial reconciliation. Justice must prevail. Including social and economic justice. Is justice does not prevail we will ultimately have revenge. That is not in any of our interests.
White capital [local and foreign] had a choice 20 years ago. To help promote a more caring society as enjoined by our Constitution. Or to continue the abuse and exploitation of the NAT era by pursuing super profits irrespective of the costs. They chose the latter and bought politically connected black South Africans to support them in their endeavours. They got the super profits. The poor got poorer and the divide between the rich and poor increased.
Is this sustainable? Is it in the best interest of South Africa? I submit not. The only way we are going to stop this is for the working class, the middle class, professionals and intellectuals to unite and hold the top 10% and their political lackeys accountable. We can do it. We must do it. It is up to us.
Of course Khaya, you are 100% correct, but that would be a surface level reading of her comments. Her statements were obviously clouded in the fuzziness of the history that she and Madiba share, without which I suspect that she would have been able to express herself as you and many others would have expected.
Also, she hangs it all on him, as future historians might, because he is the towering figure in the struggle who led the country during those first few fragile years. Madiba’s somewhat untouchable to many of our generation, but that will not always be the case.
Her questions essentially were:
1. Was compromise the right choice? Blacks had so much leverage and could have done more. Every black person had the expectation that the struggle would be over. Why does it continue?
2. Even if compromise was the right choice, were the implications of what was conceded & agreed to fully thought out? She even uses WE to acknowledge she was there “…sometimes I think we had not thought it all out…How could we? We were badly educated and the leadership does not acknowledge that.”
She says, “Maybe we have to go back to the drawing board and see where it all went wrong.” I whole-heartedly agree.
Oh and Khaya, I am beginning to believe that there is a new kid of denialism in South Africa. Apartheid denialism. At it’s mildest form, it sees de Klerk’s speech 20 years ago as an instant equaliser. Squinchy-squincy chaps, we’re equal. “Stop clining to apartheid, it’s all over now. Move on.” At it’s worst, it views apartheid as something good and necessary. “The blacks would have run everything to the ground without it. Just look at the rest of Africa.”
I’ve also noticed apartheid denialism, like our Constitution, is blind to age, colour, gender, creed etc.
You’ll see them. A lot of them will be complimenting you on this blog.
Dude i suggest reading before writing, ii seems you are forgetting that Mbeki was also crucified for ANC policies and even the ANC played them out as his own ideas. Now as for Mandela, that he sold out is common knowledge, at least Winnie got guts to say it. DO a little bit of research you will see how the interest of the Native blacks were compromised in the name of peace while the apartheid masters got away with murder (talk of Botha). The greater good you are talking about was simply not good enough for the natives, go talk to those stuck in Alexander squatter camps about greater good and see if they will understand you. Majority of the blacks were not considered when the greater good was considered. And also read the original article about Winnie and you will see although there is a lot of anger in it, it is not made out of ignorance. Again read a bit before writing.
Sipho, I’m not downplaying his role at all, I just think that we shouldn’t overplay it either.
There are several factors that people don’t think about when the negotiations took took place. For one thing, this was a give and take situation. Half the army was behind General Viljoen and they were ready to wage war for a Volkstaat, this was until Mbeki convinced them to get on the ballot to prove that the idea of a Volkstaat was popular with the Afrikaaners or not. We have such narrow views of the here and now. Populism is a dangerous thing.
In the first years peace had to be made. 2ndly when we took over the apartheid government had $330 billion worth of debt that had to be paid, by who? The ANC government. We had to foot the bill for the oppressors anyway.
Personally my life is a lot better than it would have been were it not for the work done by Mandela, the ANC and others.
Khaya, I think there is something you are missing here! The ANC in the 80’s decided to market Mandela as the face of the Struggle and started the free Mandela compaigns around the world. When Mandela Came out of Jail he was much bigger than the ANC and thats the reason PW Botha started to negotiate with him without the ANC in the late 80’s. You can recall the rumour that was going around that Tambo and Mandela were not on good terms. Winnie was there in the ANC NEC that did the negotiation which at the end excluded the other liberation movements but Mandela’s voice was mostly accepted by the Apartheid government and the international Community. I therefore also believe that He sold us and we could have gotten more from those negotiation had they not rushed it to achieve political freedom. The Apartheid state was crumbling and if we held on for five more years we could have gotten our true liberation. The struggle was about the land that was taken from black African, the minerals resources, human dignity, and equality. You will agree with me that most of that was not achieve by CODESA and the leader of the negotiation was Mandela and He is the one Credited for the success of those negotiations! We want to hear the Mandela foundation shouting against corruption and non-delivery of services but they are quiet!!!!!!!!!!
You seemed to speak with authority but you have no idea what Winnie is talking about, the problem rises when the underprivileged assume the status of privilege, a whites only condition worldwide.
Mandela, Mbeki and tambo were negotiating behind the NEC and the exile structures! If you don;t know this than don’t pretend it never happened. A trustworthy(my standards) publication New African has been trying to tell the world this (Feb 2006 Issue Apartheid did not die), (Nov 2009 Issue Economical South Africa apartheid still alive, (Feb 2010 20Year Mandela change, but for whom?) And then there is an important book by John Pilger called FREEDOM NEXTTIME whe he goes into details about Mandela’s terrible compromise that kept the economy in one hands, the white capital. Now the NEC has also been accomplice to our trauma and the brandished National Democartic revolution is a ANC scam, which I fell for for 17 years but be fare to Winnie because she is right, also google Chris Hani’s clip where he is in tears crying about why is Mandeal selling out the young men who quit school to join the MK by abandoning them in the talks and making their military sacrifice a sacrifice in vain.
If you so believe Mandela is a hero why are our land resources still feeding foreign white interest!
I advise getting information on such topics before engaging in blaming when the context and facts are out of our reach. Am no expect!
In any negationations there will be a winner and a losser. In this case Blacks lost. Mandela was like a CEO of the ANC. You are smoking something if you believe CEO of companies should not be blamed for the failure of the company. As we blamed Mugabe for the mess in Zimbabwe, Bush for Iraq. Leaders must take the glory as well as blames for their action. Unless you are staying in another country Majority of blacks are suffering hard, we only got freedom not economic freedom. go to any city centre and see who own those buildings, How are blacks suppose to own and have businesses if they dont have the necessary reources to do so. Tenderpreneirs operate from their houses cause of this. If wealth is redestributed, blacks are not going to rely on government for handouts. Your love for Mandela is good, but he was the leader of the ANC that sold us out. We all know what the role of a leader, Winnie was not the leader of the ANC we dont know her role in the whole process but we Know Mandela was the ANC leader. He was supposed to get a better deal for us. You are wrong in saying no one was happy with the settlement Whites were happy beacause in guarrantied their continuation to power. If you believe Sharing Toilets, buses, and resturants with whites is all we needed you are wrong.
If Madiba used to be a burning young revolutionary, & is now a reconciler and ‘great leader’, it is safe to suppose there is still lots of hope as yet for Julius Malema. Clearly he is stepping in the shoes of that great man.
As for Winnie, I dont think thats what she meant. Alutta!
the reason why she blames Mandela is because he was leading the team which was negotiating during CODESA,therefore,not mistaken.all in all,she has a valid point.
The Mandela myth is dead. Winnie fermented the violence so Mandela could take the credit for stopping it.
“Necklace killings in 1986 were directed not only at Inkatha but also at…black policeman, Azapo activists, and a host of individuals regarded as apartheid “collaborators”…ranged from the 32 ‘witches’ burned to death…to the schoolboy torched in August for defying a call to boycott classes…On 12 April Winnie Mandela…told a crowd…”Together, hand in hand ,with our boxes of matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country’…Associated Press said it had been recorded on videotape
ANC secretary general Alfred Nzo told the Sunday Times (London) that ‘collaborators with the enemy’ had to be eliminated…Whatever the people decide…if they decide to use necklacing, we support it…
Susan Mnumzana…told an audience at Cornell University…Those who refuse to resign have been confronted with disciplinary measures - the necklace- as traitors deserve. For this we make no apology.
…in a statement published in Sechaba, Hani followed up by saying ‘the necklace is a weapon of the masses…to cleanse the townships…of the puppets and collaborators…”
Organisations whose members had been targetted for necklacing were sharply critical…Buthelezi..condemned the necklace. At a prayer meeting… told nurses ….”We, as the Kwa-Zulu Natal Government have been the butt of many strictures because we refused to take into our employ people who are committed to these ghasty means of sorting out their differences”
Winnie boasted that she liberated with her matchboxes and necklaces. This is how the “necklace” is described in “Peoples War”:
“Coverage of necklace killings in the South African press was muted and it was left to a United Christian Action newsletter to describe the five steps in such an execution:
Step1: The victim is grabbed by the executioner and to prevent a struggle, his hands are either chopped off or tied with barbed wire.
Steo2: A tyre is hung around the victim’s shoulders and filled with petrol or diesel oil. Diesel oil is preferred as it clings to the skin.
Step 3: The fuel is lit with a match, and often the victim is forced to light the match himself.
Step 4: The burning tyre reaches a temperature of between 400 and 500 Celsius. It also releases thick clouds of smoke, mainly from carbon hydrogen, which can be as hot as 300 Celsius. Inhalation of the fumes destroys the tissue in the throat and lungs.
Step 5: The burning tyre melts and drips down the neck and the upper part of the body. It gradually burns deeper into the flesh and tissue. Once this has happened, the tyre cannot be removed and the fire cannot be extinguished.
Necklace killings involved not only physical torment but also enormous psychological trauma …pain of such a death was compounded by a deep rooted belief among many Africans that the burning of a person’s
I think the only person who really understands objectively what happened to the economy after 1994 was William Gumede. He realised that ANC negotiating party, led by Thabo Mbeki, had been ambushed by the Washington Consensus, and then in turn overturned the ANC economic platform.
International Capitalism is just so sexy when you get into power!
In the meantime the mines got off scotfree, and, while I do not agree with Malema’s nationalisation call, they still need to called to account for over a century of black exploitaion and social destruction.
You have so perfectly articulated here what I have been struggling to say since the story hit the headlines. A well considered and thoughtfull comment on a touchy subject.
This post was mentioned on Twitter by khayadlanga: Oh, Thought Leader has just put up my blog: “Winnie is Wrong about Nelson Mandela” http://bit.ly/buRijW…
Khaya - I know that marketers do not usually do logic as part of their curriculum but, if
“Sixteen years on, black people’s spending power now exceeds that of white people.”
then surely this statement is an oxymoron:
“She points out, correctly, that the economy is still in white hands.”
The economy relies on purchase, thus the economy is actually in “black” hands now. You do not have to support “white” sellers if you do not want to.
Winnie Mandela should perhaps retire before she becomes even more “eccentric” and destroy the name Mandela totally. The day she proudly claimed responsibility for Malema I knew this for a fact. A lot of women take their maiden surname after divorce, why didn’t she? Perhaps it was convenient to use the power of the Mandela name when it was strong, but now that it has become:
“an albatross around the necks of my family”, it is better for her to distance herself from it?
Furthermore, if Winnie Mandela claims: “I kept the movement alive” then perhaps she should look closer to home for someone to blame now the ANC is fallin apart then Mr Mandela, who was in prison at the time after all? You reap what you sow. Sow poison and…
Siobhan on March 10th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Well said, that is generally also my take on the matter.
When people see in retrospect there are always things they could have done better. That is sometimes hard to accept so they start blaming others. In South Africa there is a lot of blaming going around at present: you blame the government for the crime and what not, the apartheid regime for most of the rest that is wrong or being perceived as being wrong.
One wonders what went through their heads when Mandela and FW walked up to receive ‘the prize’ (hand in hand as the lady says). Fortunately that prize was handed out by an independent body, its decision was final and not open to a discussion about its validity. For Winnie (and others) to try and re-open such a discussion is less than ingenious and reeks of ’sour grapes’.
Winnie sounds a bit like that French king who said: ‘L’etat, c’est moi’ (I am the state).
One can only shiver at the thought what if she might have become ‘the state’. A thought ‘too ghastly to contemplate’
An example exists just north of our borders.
@Sipho - He didn’t say Winne is not allowed to criticise Mandela. He just addressed each of her (alleged) criticisms of him, and said why he thinks they are not true.
Anyway, what she said wasn’t just criticism it was a full on vicious attack. Which she is allowed to do, but I think it betrays the fact that this is more personal for her than simple disagreement with Mandela’s actions or philosophies.
But gentlemen, don’t you think that the desire to be empowered is part of the problem? Why do we continue to put faith in leaders and governments that have shown countless times that they can’t deliver? I may be wrong, but i’ve never heard of specific economic empowerment policies in the economically successful countries whose economic development we want to emulate. You’ll find policies that make it easier to do business, but nothing in the form of affirmative action or BEE.
I believe we should move to trying to empower ourselves and not wait for politicians and governments to empower us.
Our biggest problem in Africa is the handout mentality or dependency syndrome and until we overcome it, we will continue to be the victims of our leaders!
Nicely put Khaya. Some people love taking stabs at Nelson Mandela but without displaying any sense of empathy for the situation the country was in at that time.
It’s easy to be harsh on a person now with 20 years hindsight, but surely the good he did by far outweighs the bad!
Khaya, I think your lines make facts clear.
Mandela was not alone in the strugle eventhought
he was the light of strugle. But what Winnie don’t want to recognised is the input of other South africans (Tambo, Chris…) who sacrified their lives for the benefit of this land. they went to foreigner lend not because they knew that Mandela was going to make it alone. And when they came, the negocition table was set. This is were everything started, there were many voices that is why we must never blame Mandela.
Feruzi Ngwamba Foze on March 11th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Spot on Khaya and Sipho Hlognwana. U’tata had the cloud and credibility from which to leverage a better deal on behalf of the masses. He was the “messiah”.
He became the messiah because of the masses, for without them he wouldn’t be the great Madiba, and with the same token the masses needed him to take us to the promised land.
The whites sought to protect their economic interest because they knew its value. But as you rightly point Khaya, there were firsts to be taken care of, now that that is out of the way, how do we fulfill the promise.
This is where opportunists like Julius Malema come into the play.
People you have been warned, far from being a stupid like media pundits and whites like to portray him, Juju Boy is shrewd.
Great piece Khaya encouraging us to count the blessings of the revolutionaries like Mandela and remember that the struggle continue. They have done very good work in the past, now its our turn (not to eat) to put our shoulders to the wheel and make sure that the hopes and dreams of our people are kept alive. Apartheid must die in all its complexions.
I think it is a bit rich to blame Mandela. Policies were put in place to redistribute to the poor - including housing, including BEE, including charitable donations. The result? Corruption, theft, etc. Who was the politician in the Cape who took money for the poor for himself, then was re-elected? People should blame their leaders and themselves, but better yet, elect new leaders and show less tolerance for leaders who don’t put their money where their mouthes are. You can’t blame Mandela - he started the process, but we took our eyes off the ball, certainly when the economy was chugging along nicely and growing. But corruption was happening even then. It’s up to us, the people, to elect new leaders who truly care about delivery.
I am sure if ugogo Winnie does not mean uTata must take the blame by himself but we are talking about him here. Can you really deny the fact that he has become a token for donations???
He really has no say in the ANC but when they need to parade him for votes he is glad to oblige, that really worries me!
Khaya, yes great article, but your analysis is structuraly incorrect. It is incorrect to push the “collective” issue almost implying a headless organisation (ANC). Leaders must be thick skinned enough to take criticism. We do have leadership in the ANC and I believe that leadership does take criticism. There is nothing personal that need to be defended here about Winnie’s critic to Madiba. By the way, I have never had of criticism that would be generic and point to a collective other than leadership.
We got to be careful and not put our leaders beyond criticism. Madiba is only Human, he could have made the mistake like anybody else. To show that he was/is not leading a bunch of idiots, we should question and be critical and he can only be greatful of people behind him.
Mandela could have done more? Possibly, I think that GEAR and the rapid adoption of neo-liberal economics by the ANC was unwise to say the least but we must remember that you can’t create economic growth by fiat. While we may not might like a discussion on economics to enter our “Mandela could have done more” debate we must remember that the old economic industries that provided the lion’s share of employment to South Africans in the 1960s and 1970s went into major decline in 1980s and 1990s. South Africa was running full employment in the 1970s. But many industries shed jobs during the economic catastrophe that was the 1980s and others didn’t survive. This was in no way Mandela’s fault. Moreover the Nats had piled up so rather bad debt and Mandela needed the support of international investors to rescue South Africa from the economic crisis of the time. And in the 1990s the nationalization of the mines and banks would not have come without a price and it would have been a high one. Probably one we couldn’t afford to pay. Sure mistakes were made in the 1990s when it came to economic policy but let us remember the challenges that the National Leadership at the time faced.
Some said here that the negotiations team was led by Mbeki. Not trhough, perhaps the initial negotiations were. Actually this is what happened, Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma (who was Mbeki’s deputy at the negotiations) were out of the country. Cyril then convened a special session of the NEC and got Zuma removed as head of intelligence and got Mbeki removed as lead negotiator and replaced him with himself. Mandela was livid when he got back from these other leaders were removed while they were out of the country.
Cyril was lead negotiator. Even so, Cyrical can’t be blamed because the ANC collective agreed to the terms.
What could Mandela or anyone for that matter have done economically for Blacks at a negotiating table, please someone detail exactly what should have been negotiated.
My view is the following:
- share ownership participation of all the main industries; mines, banks big industry etc by their workers, start small and build up to an agreed % - note workers not trade unions.
This unfortunately would have been vetoed by the SACP who would never ever let “their” workers beome capitalist owners.
- levey all whites say 10% of their income per year going down 1% a year for 5 years and then staying at 5% for 5 years. This would amount to billions of rand. ALL this money to be investing in Black education, job skills (worker as well as management) and not fritted away in grand white elephant schemes.
Guess all the above is too “un-revolutionary” so not of interest but real development and wealth distribution comes from doing the boring simple things well day after day for years.
I detect a lot of residual anger in some ANC supporters. To them I say: What did you actually fight for - equality, or revenge on the white people? Be honest. Unfortunately, the white man is not going to stand for it, they will go elsewhere and take their technology and money with them. So we discredit Mr Mandela and his great act of compromise and we credit Winnie Madikizela. What now? You want a vengeful person who does not hesitate to get rid of people by any means to set the stage for leadership? Get real! How safe will anyone be in this country, how free, economically or otherwise, black, brown or white?
Boy Interrupted i think you’re so on point because quite frankly Khaya, I think you missed the point of the article completety. New kind of denialism, indeed…
Like someone said - DeKlerk and crew were never looking for forgiveness from blacks, just pardon; which is why we must just “move on”. Let’s wake up guys. Just… wake up.
Point of correction Sir,The function which you mention about Thabo Mbeki & Winnie was not an ANC funntion but agovernment one .Winnie was not even invited there, let alone the disruptions she caused.
I think that both Winnie and Nelson played an equal part in liberating South Africa. I do not like her but hers was a much harder road than Nelson’s because she also had her own children to care for. She is a true Warior Goddess of Africa. Would she have become this person if it had not been for the fact that Nelson was her husband? Quite possibly and it is sad that she is sidelined and seen as the demon she is. I believe Nelson did what he could and was deified for it and rightly so because there was so little bloodshed and we white people have him to thank for that. 16 years is not a long time for transformation to take pplace especially if the very people being liberated have to die. Liberation is worthless when you are dead. Let’s not pretend that white politicians and business are free of sin however it is abundantly clear that the masses believed that all whites would be dispossessed and they would get to live a privileged life. Ittakes time to transfer power and skill to run a huge economy and money is needed on a vast scale to do so. The money is coming from the whites in the First world as it always has from the time minerals were discovered and turned SA into the powerhouse it was. Land is vital for growing food.The people who get the land must be able to sustain it.
Even if she did say those things- Winnie has a point. No- its not only Mandela to blame-and yes compromises were to b made- but at wat expense…
Black life is still cheap.When the NP got in to power 1948-they empowered themselves, they nationalised all these big companies, and more especially targeted the poor whites first before focusing on evrybody els….
IN S.A. it takes 14 years for somone to get a mere RDP house built for them- but only a few years to build “world class” stadia like bo Moses Mabhida…were r r priorities vele?
Khaya u have a point in ur piece but atleast Winnie has finally voiced out what many have been thinking…Black people got a very raw deal-compromise of nie…
Children of the soil, you need to forgive Khaya for his ignorance. Many of us who expirienced apartheid first hand and have seen the aftermath of post 1994 fully agree with Winie. We are yet to attain freedom in it’s true sense. Mandela was made a brand purposefully by the ANC to represent the face of the struggle, like the Coke brand he became bigger than the ANC. What he said was accepted within the ANC and globally to represent the aspirations of black SAns but the reality is that not all of us agreed with the CODESA settlement that Mandela forced us to swallow. The conflict we see today within the Alliance can also be attributed to his failures that Winnie eloquently and impeccably spoke about but that’s another debate.
I also agree fully with her statement about imaginery streets of New York AKA Bishop Tutu. To borrow from Robert Mugabe i say the less said about that “evil, little and embittered bishop” the better. Both men represented the aspirations of oppressed SAns but ended up being a shame.
Khaya mfwethu, why do you think white people now love the terrorist Mandela?
Why are white bloggers in this forum appreciating your “great” article? …
If you disagree with Winie, why whenever people demand improvement in their lives say we voted? Why emphasis political not economic freedom? Did our esteemed Mandela put less emphasis on the later to the extent that we forgot true liberation?… food for though, boy.
It seems to me Winnie’s recent outburst against Madiba was fuelled by long held resentments of all kinds. Resentment is a personal thing and it is up the owner of it whether they hang on to it or let it go. Human beings in general find letting go of resentment an extremely difficult thing to do. Madiba has clearly let go of any resentments he might have had. That is the wonder and glory of the man. As he himself has said, ‘holding on to resentment is like drinking poison and hoping your enemy will die’. Holding on to resentment of any kind is equivalent to locking yourself in a dungeon away from life and from your fellow humans. Only someone immersed in resentment wants to do that.
Kaya
Are you sure that Cyril led? That is not what Naomi Klein said in The Shock Doctrine. She quoted William Gumede directly.
Madiba was negotiating the political bit and Mbeki the economic. To be fair he said Mbeki persuaded Madiba, who agreed to the capitalist recovery programme. Nothing new in that, i.e. Chile, Russia etc. That Chicago School really got around and stuffed up the emerging economies. Our mining companies must have LOVED them.
Winnie is partly right about Madiba,details of his infamous legal fight with Ismail Ayob are good testimonials.This excessive,blindly and annoying over-praise of Madiba needs 2 stop already.In case someone isnt sure what im on about,wait 4 weeks preceding his birthday in July,you’ll think visiting a dentist is a challenge.
“I chose to tell no one what I was about to do. Not my colleagues upstairs nor those in Lusaka. The ANC is a collective, but the government had made collectivity in this case impossible. I did not have the security or the time to discuss these issues with my organization. I knew that my colleagues upstairs would condemn my proposal, and that would kill my initiative even before it was born. There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way. Finally, my isolation furnished my organization with an excuse in case matters went awry; the old man was alone and completely cut off, and his actions were taken by him as an individual, not a representative of the ANC” - Nelson Mandela (1994), Long Walk to Freedom, page 627,
@Fani Dingiswayo - (Aluta continua) I find the mutation that phrase went through in South Africa interesting: the original being: “A luta continua, vitória é certa”. It seems, in South Africa, that the leaders are not interested in the second part, the first being what matters to them. (Struggling people don’t complain about leaders and are prepared to starve so the leaders can drive German cars, making the west even richer.)
How sad. How much time wasted on destruction that should be spent on construction? The revolution is over. Ring the bells and let’s start clearing the rubble to rebuild. Remelt the canons into plow shares (Winnie, Malema etc.), they are making inapropriate noises. There are a lot of adults out there who missed their education and badly need it to make personal progress.
This arrived in my inbox. I think it lends credence to my position, wouldn’t you say?
“I chose to tell no one what I was about to do. Not my colleagues upstairs nor those in Lusaka. The ANC is a collective, but the government had made collectivity in this case impossible. I did not have the security or the time to discuss these issues with my organization. I knew that my colleagues upstairs would condemn my proposal, and that would kill my initiative even before it was born. There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way. Finally, my isolation furnished my organization with an excuse in case matters went awry; the old man was alone and completely cut off, and his actions were taken by him as an individual, not a representative of the ANC” - Nelson Mandela (1994), Long Walk to Freedom, page 627,
The general consensus in the comments is that the people who hate the ANC and the 1994 consensus think you are right, and everybody else thinks that Winnie has a point.
Maybe not too much of a point, given who she is, but much more than you admit. And she’s dead right about Archappeaser Tutu, too.
Mandela is a man, not an icon. He espoused violence at one time and that landed him in gaol for most of his life. He admits his mistakes openly in his autobiography. I’m sure he had great difficulty making peace with FW but Mandela saw that anything else could lead only to the total destruction of the country and millions of deaths.
What would be left for ‘the people’ to ‘inherit’ after all out civil war? Nothing. The existing infra-structure would be destroyed. The country would have no functioning economy for decades, if ever. A civil war could only worsen the future for the people Mandela loved and tried to save from utter ruin.
Mandela had nothing personal to gain from what he did. He wasn’t ‘playing hero’. He went out of his way to emphasise everywhere he went in the world that it was the ‘collective’ of the ANC that had liberated the country. If Mandela did anything wrong it was that: bowing unconditionally to the ‘collective’. The ‘collective’ is a convenient way to avoid responsibility and keep people in a state of fear. No matter how stupid the decisions of the collective, one cannot differ. That is how the Soviet Empire destroyed itself from within–with Winnie-type ‘purges’ of those who dared to differ.
Mandela is not perfect but he is the best the ANC has produced and that is good enough in my book.
Mtimande, the problem is not that Mandela forgot economic liberation it is that all in the struggle organisations in the late 80’s and early 90’s did: all shouted for sanctions, all endorsed liberation before education, the unions totally rejected all shareholding schemes etc etc. So it is wrong to blame Mandela he just followed what everyone demanded. What did Winnie reccommend back then for economic liberation??? - zero she was too busy attacking everything.
Go read all the publications of that time; the ANC/SACP Unions and everyone associated with bringing down Apartheid, anyone pressing for economic considerations was lucky not to be necklaced.
Now it is 16 years too late and needs patient, dedicated, hard work plus huge huge resources to be ploughed into Black/disadvantaged education and skills training for at least the next 10 years.
The ANC/SACP/Union allaince leading us should be strongly punished for not starting this way back in 1994.
Khaya i always read your stuff-love it most of the times,but THIS,are you really saying you know Mandela more than WINNIE or are you just saying that the version of Mandela that Winnie portrays is wrong,either way this is Winnie’s personal experience of what happened.SHE was the wife throughout all of this
it took one read through this extraordinarily colourful collection of comments for me to realise something: all this talk of ‘equality’ and ‘rainbow nation’ and all that is just dirt cheap. like it or not, we live in an extremely racially charged society; there’s no escaping it, at least not for the foreseeable future. it’s almost so deeply ingrained and well hid that it’s become an addiction. it makes me incredibly sad. even more so that it takes a touchy topic like this to expose it.
Sipho, you are talking about talks about talks. Not talks about negotiating the economy, what shape or form the new government would take. He was also negotiating the release of other political prisoners. He basically facilitated the release of the others. He refused to be released before them which is why he was the last “out”.
Do I sense a realisation amongst Thoughtists that blaming and continuing to reiterate the half truths and lies used by populists like Winnie and Julius is not productive. The Codesa agreement was a contract that each side was equally unhappy with. The Nat government didn’t want to give up any power and the ANC wanted it all. A compromise was reached.
But what happened next. The human and physical capital inherited by the ANC government was, and continues to be, squandered, bit by bit. By selling assets, corruption, mismanagement and no management. It wasn’t the Codesa agreement that was flawed, it was its implementation, largely by an inept and corrupt ANC government. Race doesn’t even come into it except as a convenient distraction.
When do we stop lying to ourselves? Mandela sold out, that is that. Black lives are still cheaper, education is still a privilege, hunger/poverty still have Black faces. Who was he thinking of when he started the negotiations, NOT BLACK PEOPLE! He wanted out, finish and klaar. As for Tutu the less said the better.
Nthabiseng Matlhobogoane on March 12th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
I would stop worrying about who liberated South Africa, and worry about who bankrupted it in 16 years.
And don’t blame whites or apartheid - this is EXACTLY the same pattern that Ghana followed - they were bankrupt in less than a decade and their first president deposed by a coup.
It started with the ANC borrowing to do the Arms Deal and having to follow the rules set by the World Bank and the IMF (who also insisted on the sale of Sasol and all parastatals. Unfortunately they could only find buyers for the profitable ones - Sasol, Iscor, Telkom etc )
They made PROFITS for the state in 1994. Not only are the good ones sold, but we are borrowing R400 billion to fix the bad ones that no-one wanted to buy (SAA, SABC, Eskom)
Compare the balance sheet of 1994 and our last National budget and INCLUDE those borrowings, and you will see we are bankrupted.
And who is rich from those sales?
AND we have lost 5 million jobs since 1994, NOT just 1 million last year - and we have NO industrial policy to create jobs, even now.
Even Mandela himself does not pretend he controlled who was released when, or that he had any idea when De Klerk was releasing whom.
In fact no-one did - not even his De Klerk’s party.
Plus when it suits him Mandela is ” a leader who has to make decisions ahead of his people” and other times his decisions are decisions of ” a collective”.
Tutu does exactly the same, except when he goes against the mandate of the church it is God who tells him to do so.
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Khaya Dlanga* By day he perpetuates the evils of capitalism by making consumers feel insecure (he makes ads). For this he has been rewarded with numerous Loerie awards, Cannes Gold, several Eagle awards and a Black Eagle.
Khaya has an ego-crushing bank balance but an ego-boosting 6.5 million views on the popular video-sharing website YouTube.
Africa's top Digital Citizen Journalist in 2008 for innovative use of the internet, at the Highway Africa conference, the largest gathering of African journalists in the world.
Jeremy Maggs' "The Annual - Advertising, Media & Marketing 2008" listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in Advertising, Media & Marketing.
Winner of Financial Mail's Adfocus New Broom award 2009. He has listed these accolades to make you think more highly of him than you ought to.
* The views expressed in this or any future post are not necessarily his own (unless of course you agree with them).
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Wow, couldnt have said it better myself. Well put
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