The years of imprisonment hardened me. Perhaps if you have been given a moment to hold back and wait for the next blow, your emotions wouldn’t be as blunted as they have been in my case. When it happens every day of your life, when that pain becomes a way of life . . . I no longer have the emotion of fear. There is no longer anything I can fear. There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn’t any pain I haven’t known – Winnie Mandela

In preparation for the state funeral of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on Saturday 14th April, 2018, the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has described her as “an abiding symbol of the desire of our people to be free.” In the same vein, the description of Winnie as a “brick rejected by the builder” by the Economic Freedom Fighters’ leader Julius Malema aptly provides a good reflection on the attribute and doggedness of Nelson Mandela’s former wife and struggle hero. Born to Methodist parents 26 September 1936, in Bizana, Pondoland, in the Eastern Cape, Winnie became the first qualified black medical social worker at Soweto’s Baragwanath Hospital, where her research into infant mortality rates drew her into activism. She married Nelson Mandela in 1958 and they had two daughters, Zenani and Zindzizwa. Mrs Mandela died at the Netcare Milpark Hospital, Johannesburg after a long illness on Monday 2nd April 2018 at the age of 81. Part of Madikizela-Mandela’s obituary reads: “Mama Winnie was a proud black African woman who fought and persevered for her country against injustice. She knew it was a thankless job and did not endure the hardship in pursuit of any personal glorification but instead for the emancipation of her people.” Winnie, “an extraordinary woman, a mother, a soldier, and a fighter” was an inspiration to many despite her human mistakes. 

Fearless Winnie helped to found the Black Women’s Federation and the Black Parents’ Association in the 1970s, before she was internally exiled to Brandfort. In her fight against pass laws for women she was arrested at a time when she was breastfeeding. She was accused of running a mafia-style gang responsible for multiple murders and beatings in Soweto, and of endorsing “necklacing” – killing suspected informers with burning tyres put over their heads… She was found guilty of kidnapping Stompie Moeketsi, a 14-year-old boy who was then beaten to death by her bodyguards in her home in 1988, and was convicted in 1991. Beyond her weakness, her bravery, independence and integrity speaks volumes about her even after her death. With Nelson imprisonment for 27 years, most of Winnie’s 38-year marriage to Nelson was spent apart, she raised their two daughters alone as she kept his political dream alive. When Nelson was free from prison in 1990, he walked hand-in-hand with Winnie into freedom but later separated two years later, 1992 and divorced in 1996 ‘after a legal wrangle that revealed she had had an affair with a young bodyguard.’ It is very challenging that Nelson who was able to forgive the Apartheid regime could not forgive his wife. In her old age, Winnie re-emerged as a respected elder, a big reminder of the struggle against apartheid.

Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Dr Desmond Tutu described Winnie as very inspiring. According to Tutu, “She refused to be bowed by the imprisonment of her husband, the perpetual harassment of her family by security forces, detentions, banning and banishment … Her courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of activists.” The Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu, described Winnie’s death as “a very gutting day for me and many who campaigned against Apartheid! Life threw the worst at her! She kept the faith and may she rest in peace and rise in glory! Glad we prayed together!”

Winnie was an ecumenical link between Methodist Church and Anglican Church in South Africa. The Methodist Bishop of Johannesburg, Dr Steve Moreo, described her Winnie as a practising Methodist who “used her strong ecumenical links to reach out to other denominations, not least that of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa in general, and the Diocese of Johannesburg in particular.  There were many occasions when her insight and background information assisted the Anglican Church in the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s to be part of a Christian witness in bringing about the demise of apartheid.” Winnie was subjected to torture while in prison, “and carried the damage of that ordeal through the rest of her life.” It is on record that Winnie represented “a generation of South African leadership that was exposed to the full brutality of the apartheid regime,” like her husband, she “made mistakes . . . had weaknesses.” The African saying that, “A big tree has fall in the forest” aptly applied to Winnie’s description by a former South Africa Primate, Archbishop Emeritus Njongonkulu Ndungane as one of South Africa’s “most courageous anti-apartheid activists.” Beyond any controversy, Winnie’s roles in battles to end white-minority rule remains memorable. Just as Israel, the stone rejected as of no account in the political plans of those who were trying to shape the destinies of the Eastern nation, but in the purpose of God destined to a chief place in the building of history, Winnie the rejected anti-apartheid woman occupied undeniable place in the destiny of South Africa.