Winnie would never be First Lady of South Africa, but she was still beloved and admired by millions of black South Africans. In December 1994, she was once again elected to the ANC’s national executive, even though Mandela had struck both her name and that of her friend Peter Mokaba off the list of nominees. Delegates insisted on nominating them both, and enough votes were cast to place them among the top five of the sixty-strong committee.
Winnie was also one of the 400 members of democratic South Africa’s first parliament, and perhaps hoping she had learned her lesson, Mandela appointed her Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture. But, as with the welfare department, rumours quickly surfaced of financial irregularities. Winnie’s reaction was to lash out at the ANC government, accusing them of bending over backwards to placate the whites. Mandela was furious, and demanded an apology. Winnie complied, but made it clear that she was doing so under pressure, and levelled a new accusation at the government, namely that it was undermining free speech. When she vowed after being released from prison in 1969 that she would never again have respect for authority, she clearly did not have only the apartheid government in mind.
After their very public spat, she left on a trip for West Africa, against Mandela’s express instructions, and while she was away the police raided her home, as they had so many times during the apartheid years, and confiscated a number of documents.
In August 1995, Mandela instituted divorce proceedings against Winnie. He had put his life with her behind him, and within months began courting Graça Machel, widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel, who had died in an aircraft accident fifteen years before. In March 1996, after living apart for four years, the divorce was finalised in the Rand Supreme Court. After a marriage that had endured for thirty-eight years, and survived twenty-seven years of separation, during the darkest days of apartheid and tragedy, what had ranked as one of the world’s great love stories was over.
PART III
Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela
‘He who allows oppression, shares the crime.’
– Erasmus Darwin, grandfather
of Charles Darwin
18
‘Things went horribly wrong’
FROM THE MOMENT of her birth, the reality of Winnie’s life acted as a foil to expectation. She was the daughter who should have been a son; the highly visible activist who should have been a demure and dutiful spouse; the tragic heroine who should have been an ingénue; the ex-wife who should have been First Lady.
She had long since shed the cocoon of Winnie Madikizela from Bizana, the unassuming, statuesque beauty who arrived in eGoli with her luggage balanced on her head, and emerged from four decades in the chrysalis of Winnie Mandela, consort to a god-man, as an icon in her own right, melding all the stages of her development into the person who would henceforth be known as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
If the ANC, or Nelson Mandela’s advisers, had hoped that divorce would put an end to her uncanny knack for stealing the headlines, they would learn, soon enough, that cutting her adrift was no more the way to confront ‘the Winnie factor’ than the security police’s relentless campaign of harassment had been. Still, Winnie was officially on her own now at a time when she was sorely in need of support.
Exhaustive studies by the World Health Organisation emphasise that victims of trauma and injustice cannot heal until justice is seen to be done. Mandela understood that it was crucial to deal with the loss and anguish of those who suffered most under apartheid, and that the horror of South Africa’s recent past could not simply be dismissed as bygones. Ideally, the ANC government had to find ways of dispensing justice to those responsible for torture, persecution and death that would not paralyse the court system for decades, or undermine the fragile peace and stability of post-1994 South Africa.
The result was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), launched in February 1996. The principle of a qualified amnesty had been agreed during multiparty negotiations leading up to the first democratic elections, and the TRC was a compromise between the National Party’s proposed blanket amnesty for all members of the apartheid government and its security forces, and the ANC’s determination to expose the full horror of the past. It would offer a quasi-judicial forum where victims could expose their suffering and perpetrators could seek amnesty from prosecution, provided they could persuade a panel of judges that their actions – including murder – had been politically motivated, and on condition that they disclosed the full, unvarnished facts, no matter who else might be implicated.
The mechanisms of the TRC were controversial on both sides of the political spectrum. Many black people considered the process far too lenient in relation to the misery and loss they had suffered, while most whites, and especially serving and former members of the military, saw it as a witch-hunt. In the end, self-confessed killers did go free, but there were also remarkable instances of genuine reconciliation between former enemies, and although the final report fell far short of being a complete chronicle of apartheid’s history and legacy, it did fill in many of the gaps previously shielded from public scrutiny by legislation, cover-ups and lies.
Mandela appointed Archbishop Desmond Tutu as chairman of the TRC, underlining the intention of forgiveness rather than revenge. Misgivings about and harsh criticism of what was seen as the vociferous anti-apartheid churchman’s inherent bias in favour of the government were largely allayed by his threat to resign unless former members of the liberation struggle also availed themselves of the opportunity to disclose acts committed in the name of their ‘just’ war, especially those that took the lives of civilians or their own comrades.
By 1997, Mandela started looking at who would succeed him. He had made it clear that he intended serving only one term as president, and Thabo Mbeki had long been groomed to lead both the ANC and the country from 1999. As deputy president, Mandela favoured Bantu Holomisa, who had overthrown the Matanzima government in the Transkei in a military coup. The ANC leadership was thus thrown into disarray when it became clear that Winnie was positioning herself for election to the crucial No. 2 post on the ANC’s national executive. Had it not been for recurring allegations during TRC hearings of her involvement in the murders of Stompie Seipei, Dr Abu-Baker Asvat and others, she might well have mustered enough popular support to fulfil her ambition.
But in September 1997, the BBC screened a sensational television documentary, subsequently also shown in South Africa, called Katiza’s Journey. After disappearing in 1991 when he jumped bail while awaiting trial in the Stompie Seipei case, Katiza Cebekhulu made a spectacular reappearance through the TV programme and in a book by British journalist Fred Bridgland. For the first time, Cebekhulu was uncloaked as a police informer, who had provided an eyewitness account of Winnie stabbing Stompie with a sharp object. It was also claimed that Nelson Mandela had personally arranged for Katiza to be deported to the Zambian capital Lusaka, where his British benefactor, Lady Emma Nicholson, discovered him in jail.
The TRC could not ignore the numerous accusations against Winnie, and she was subpoenaed to appear at an in camera hearing of the Human Rights Violations Committee. She demanded a public hearing in order to clear her name before the ANC’s national conference in December, where the future office bearers would be elected. The TRC had no way of knowing what Winnie might reveal or claim in her bid to present herself as a suitable candidate for a senior ANC position, and decided to go ahead with in camera sessions on 26 September and 13 October, followed by a public hearing on 24 November, at which she would be afforded the opportunity to respond to the accusations against her.
The cases that drew the most attention were those involving the disappearance of Lolo Sono and the deaths of Stompie and Dr Asvat. Officially called to investigate the activities of the Mandela United Football Club, the hearings were quickly dubbed ‘the Winnie hearings’, and dealt for the most part with her involvement in human rights abuses. For nine days, a recreation centre in the lower-middle-class
Johannesburg suburb of Mayfair became the focus of international media attention as forty-three witnesses – including victims, former MUFC members, religious and community leaders, police and members of the Mandela Crisis Committee – testified both for and against Winnie. More than 200 print and electronic journalists from all over the world were on hand to record and rehash the bloody violence that reigned in Soweto in the mid-1980s. But the focal point of all the interest was the woman who personified the struggle against apartheid and injustice more vividly than any other individual, the Mother of the Nation who stood accused of killing one child and abusing several others.
In her best-selling book, Country of My Skull, author and poet Antjie Krog described Winnie’s dichotomous domain as ‘the house of the liberation movement’s most revered political lineage and the house of lowly informers. The house of famous, regal personalities and the house of a particular kind of gangster personality.’ From the patchwork of testimony it heard, the TRC faced the conundrum of stitching together the most likely picture of what had happened in that house, and deciding what to do with their findings. The following are concise summaries of the information the commissioners had at their disposal, and their conclusions.
Xola Mokhaula and Mlando Ngubeni
Xola Mokhaula was executed in front of his family on the evening of 24 January 1987, apparently after he had confiscated a firearm from MK operative Oupa Alex Seheri. In attempting to retrieve the firearm, Seheri shot Mokhaula in cold blood and fatally wounded Mlando Ngubeni. Police found one of the guns used in the attack in Zindzi Mandela’s bedroom in Winnie’s house. An Audi used in the incident belonged to Winnie. Oupa Seheri, S’thembiso Buthelezi and Charles Bongani Zwane (also known as Bobo) were convicted of the murders, and Seheri later sought amnesty from the TRC. Buthelezi admitted in testimony at the trial that he had driven the Audi during the operation and had hidden the recovered Scorpion machine pistol at the Mandela house.
Winnie denied all knowledge of the events.
The TRC found there was no evidence that either Winnie or Zindzi had any direct involvement in the incident.
Peter and Phillip Makhanda
On 26 May 1987, the Makhanda brothers were taken by force to the back rooms of Winnie’s home. They were assaulted, had ANC slogans carved into their bodies and battery acid rubbed into their wounds. Two MUFC members, Absolom Madonsela and Isaac Mokgoro, and Winnie’s driver John Morgan, were charged in the case, but acquitted owing to insufficient and contradictory evidence. However, the testimony of former MUFC member Gift Ntombeni and from other witnesses confirmed that the incident had taken place. Although the Makhanda brothers had implicated Winnie in the incident, she was never questioned by the police, and denied any knowledge or involvement.
The TRC found that the assaults and mutilation of Peter and Phillip Makhanda did take place in the back rooms of Winnie’s home, and that members of the MUFC participated in the assault and mutilation of the youths.
Sicelo Dhlomo
Sicelo Dhlomo had been abducted, and was found dead in Soweto on 25 January 1988. The security forces were assumed to be responsible. However, according to an amnesty application, Sicelo Dhlomo was killed by members of an MK unit led by John Itumeleng Dube, allegedly because he was suspected of being a police informer. Xoliswa Falati alleged that Winnie had been involved in this incident, but Winnie denied any knowledge of Dhlomo’s death and the TRC found no evidence of her involvement.
Phumlile Dlamini
Phumlile was the sister of Kenneth Thole Dlamini, one of the original members of the MUFC. He was later killed by Sizwe Sithole. She testified that she had been assaulted by Winnie and members of the MUFC in August and September 1988, while pregnant with the child of Johannes ‘Shakes’ Tau, who sometimes acted as Winnie’s driver. Tau had told Phumlile he was also having a relationship with Winnie. When she was first taken to Winnie’s home, Phumlile was assaulted by Winnie. Tau apparently disappeared, and a week later Phumlile was again picked up by Winnie and members of the football club, and again assaulted by Winnie. Later, she was repeatedly assaulted by the men for a period of five hours, until Zindzi intervened. Phumlile wanted to report the matter to the police, but her brother begged her not to, as he feared what Winnie and the MUFC might do. Winnie denied any knowledge of the incident, or involvement in the assaults.
The TRC found that Phumlile Dlamini was a credible witness, and that Winnie as well as members of the MUFC had assaulted her.
Thole Dlamini
Kenneth Thole Dlamini, Phumlile’s brother, was shot dead after attending a night vigil on 16 October 1988. He had fallen out with prominent members of the MUFC after testifying against a member, Absolom Madonsela. The testimony led to Madonsela’s conviction. Winnie denied any involvement in Dlamini’s killing.
The TRC found that, although Dlamini had probably been shot dead by Clayton Sizwe Sithole, and Winnie was not in Soweto at the time of the incident, she knew about it and attempted to cover it up by assisting potential witnesses to go into hiding, and helping Sithole to evade prosecution.
Tebogo Maluleke, Sipho Mbenenge and Sergeant Stephanus Pretorius
Frans Tebogo Maluleke (also known as Peter) and Sipho Mbenenge were MK cadres who were staying temporarily at MUFC coach Jerry Richardson’s house. On 9 November 1988, following a tip-off from Richardson, the police attempted to capture the two. In the ensuing gun battle they were both killed, as was Security Branch Sergeant Stephanus Pretorius – Richardson’s police handler. This incident led directly to the subsequent disappearance of Lolo Sono and Sibuniso Tshabalala.
The TRC found that Winnie had placed the two MK cadres in Jerry Richardson’s care, and Richardson admitted that they were killed after he had informed the police that they were at his house. He was released from police custody two weeks after the incident. Winnie refused to answer questions during the in camera hearing on whether she had had any suspicions following Richardson’s quick release, considering the serious circumstances in which he had been arrested. The TRC found that she had been negligent and that her misplaced trust in Jerry Richardson was the direct cause of their deaths.
Lolo Sono and Anthony Sibuniso Tshabalala
Tebogo Maluleke was a relative of the Sono family. On Wednesday 9 November 1988, Winnie arranged for both Lolo and Sibuniso to go and see Tebogo. Lolo’s father, Nicodemus Sono, testified that Lolo had told him when he got there that a police helicopter was flying around Richardson’s house. Tebogo was nervous and told them to leave. They hid at a nearby shop, from where they witnessed the attack by the police, during which Tebogo was killed.
Nicodemus Sono testified that on Sunday 13 November, Winnie visited his house in the company of a number of other people. Her driver, Michael Siyakamela, called him outside and he spoke to Winnie, who was in the front seat of the minibus. His son, Lolo, was sitting in the back. His face was swollen and bruised, and he was shaking and crying. Nicodemus begged Winnie to leave Lolo with him, but she said the movement would deal with ‘this dog’. Lolo was never seen again.
Winnie denied any knowledge of an assault on Lolo Sono, or his disappearance.
The TRC had obtained a statement from Michael Siyakamela that verified Nicodemus Sono’s testimony, and found that Lolo was abducted by members of the MUFC on 13 November 1988 and taken to Winnie’s home where, with her knowledge, he was severely assaulted. Winnie and members of the MUFC then took Lolo to his parents’ home in Meadowlands, where she refused to hand Lolo over to his father, and told Nicodemus Sono that his son would be sent away so that the movement could deal with him. The TRC found that Lolo was killed by Jerry Richardson.
Sibuniso Tshabalala’s mother, Nomsa, testified that members of the MUFC came to her house in search of Sibuniso on the evening of 13 November, but he was not at home. When he returned, his family told him what had happened to Lolo Sono. He refused to go into hiding and went out on the morning of 15 November. Later that day, Sibuniso called his mother and said only that he was with
Lolo. He was never seen again.
Lolo and Sibuniso’s distraught parents reported the incident to Captain Potgieter at the Protea Police Station, who told them to report it to the Meadowlands police.
During rigorous questioning, Richardson admitted he had been an informer. Earlier in the hearing, police commissioner George Fivaz admitted under cross-examination that Richardson had been paid R10 000 in 1995 for ‘past services’ and to ‘oil his hand’ for cooperation in a fresh inquiry into the disappearance of Lolo Sono and Siboniso Tshabalala.
Richardson testified that Winnie had ordered him to kill Lolo and Sibusisu because they were informers. He also admitted killing Koekie Zwane, a young woman accused of being a police informer, in December 1988.
The TRC found that Sibuniso Tshabalala had been assaulted at Winnie’s home, and was subsequently murdered by Richardson. Both Lolo and Sibuniso had been falsely accused of being informers, and of being responsible for the death of Tebogo Maluleke and Sipho Mbenenge at the house of Richardson, who had admitted to being the police informer.
The TRC also found that Winnie was involved in Lolo Sono’s abduction and knew that he was held on her premises, and that she had to accept responsibility for the disappearance of Lolo and Sibuniso.
Pelo Mekgwe, Thabiso Mono, Kenny Kgase and Stompie Seipei
A commissioner asked the Reverend Frank Chikane whether the Mandela Crisis Committee had demanded to see the boys when they visited Winnie’s home.
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
Winnie Mandela Page 35