A tribute to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

NOMVULA MOKONYANE MEMBER OF ANC NEC & NWC

On Monday, the 26th September 2022, we will mark what would have been the 86th birthday of one of the icons of our struggle, Winnie nomzamo Zanyiwe Madikizela-Mandela, affectionately known as Mam’ Winnie.

Mam’ Winnie was many things wrapped into one – a mother to many, a neighbour next door, a revolutionary, a leader, a gender and political activist as well as a woman of faith.

A glimpse at your pictures taken over the years depicts a cocktail of a life of many contradictions morphed into the determined triumph of the human spirit. These images depict your life as per your journey and experience – full of cheerfulness and joy on the one hand; anguish, pain and sadness on the other. The common denominator of what the pictures depict is that you had an unmatched sense of love for your people, country and movement.

The trajectory of your life can only be described as a mirror image of what your own people had gone through, experienced and conquered over the brutal systems of colonialism and later apartheid.

Mam’ Winnie, you were true to your own conscience, and by your own actions and deeds you confirmed to all of us that one cannot conquer what you do not confront.

You survived the worst that the system heaved upon freedom fighters. House arrest, detention without trial, solitary confinement and everything that the enemy could employ to destroy your soul and dampen your spirit. Alas, they failed dismally.

The enemy did not understand that the brutality meted out against your people instead worked to stir them on and became a clarion call toward their fight for freedom and emancipation.

When you left Brandfort, where apartheid had banished you and had hoped to silence you forever, you arrived in Kagiso and Munsieville with your most defiant fervour and you agitated the masses of the West Rand with such revolutionary zeal towards mass action and self-defence. It was the kind of push and support we had been yearning for.

In you, we saw a mother, a leader, a revolutionary and above all, a Freedom Fighter! You gave us hope at a time when we needed it most. Your unbreakable fighting spirit, messages and action inspired us to without fear, heed the call of President OR Tambo and to dedicate our mass support and action towards rendering “apartheid unworkable and South Africa ungovernable”.

As the brutality of the apartheid state increased with great intensity, so did your own vigour to confront it. It is during these moments which are forever etched on our minds, that you, at the Pentecostal Church in Munsieville, addressed us and made the now famous and widely captured call that “we have no bullets, we have no guns. With our three (3) cents matches we will defend ourselves”.

Mam’ Winnie, you were the epitome of a true revolutionary – always humble, selfless, inspirational, and dedicated. You had an incredible sense of hope, notwithstanding life’s daily challenges that confronted your inner soul. You were often shaken, but found still standing at all times.

Having been perpetually harassed, persecuted and victimised made you to forever be vigilant and to defend yourself in a manner that sometimes forced you to be defiant and dismissive, even against those that meant well.

Some came close to you, taking advantage of your pain, popularity and bravery for their own personal and selfish interests. It caused you great pain and frustration, but because of who you were Nomzamo, you were never to be a victim and would always come to realise it and extend a hand of comradeship once again.

Watching you through those difficult times planted many seeds in us and across many generations of the revolution. In you we saw a soldier, a warrior and a commander of the ground forces. Forever with and amongst us!

Mam’ Winnie in whatever you did, you gained strength through perseverance. You took courage in every crisis moment. You were never moved by your own circumstances and tribulations, but more by your belief and hope for the dawn of a new South Africa.

Mam’ Winnie, the communities of Soweto, Mamelodi, including Phola Park, Winnie Mandela and many other townships and informal settlements can attest to your motherly and sheltering hands, amidst the apartheid regime’s instigated violence between the hostel-dwellers and the people in the townships.

At the height of CODESA and the heightened apartheid-sponsored black on black violence, yourself and MaSisulu led a protest that led to all of us being detained at the John Vorster Police Station.

Cde Madiba and other leaders had to come meet us at the police station and hear our demands before we agreed to be released. Our demand as women and young people of the then PWV was that those in CODESA cannot continue with talks in Kempton Park without addressing the apartheid-sponsored black on black violence.

Comrade Chris Hani supported our action of defiance and Cde Ronnie Kasrils worked with us on the ground to build Self Defense Units to protect the people.

Mama, you were undoubtedly one of the most fervent supporters and organizers of SDUs.

As the mother of the nation, you were always modest, awe-inspiring and forever astute, albeit unobtrusive. Mam’ Winnie, you have undoubtedly earned your stripes to be called mother of the nation; not as a tag or nomenclature, but as something that encapsulated and expressed your dedication to the cause of the poor, the dispossessed, the vulnerable and those who suffered need.

To many of us, you were and still remain our mother, albeit that the apartheid regime denied you the opportunity to be a wife and mother to your own husband and children, respectively.

In the midst of being Mrs Mandela, you also built you own identity as Winnie Mandela – a symbol of defiance and resistance.

Only those close to you knew that in your beauty, your warm smile and in your strong character, there was also a woman carrying pain that only the toughest and most resolute could survive. Pain for the AnC Women’s League, pain for the AnC, pain for communities, individuals, pain for yourself and your children, our sisters, Zenani and Zindzi.

Yet you Mama, with all that pain, had immense love for everyone and a forgiving heart.

In your own right and style you led and accepted to be led. Your leadership qualities were often tested and doubted by some, and in many instances you would ultimately put the AnC first.

Celebrating your birthday has always been about sharing and giving back. This is how you celebrated with the senior citizens of Orlando West.

Indeed, about the conditions you endured, this is what you said in your own word:

“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 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.”

Mam’ Winnie, your spirit beckons us all to catch the moment, seize the day; to capture the moment of your heart and the benefit of your pain. You remain one of the two nominated female candidates for the position of AnC President that we never had. Worse with you, because you were deliberately made not to accept your nomination. To date, we can boldly say Winnie Mandela, an AnC Presidential nominee!

As we mark your 86th birthday and remember you, we know that your voice, which instilled fear within the ranks of the apartheid state apparatus, shall remain a clarion call to all of us, young and old, urban and rural, black and white, to continue in your arduous journey of nation-building towards a truly democratic, non-sexist and non-racial South Africa.

We will forever remember you as mother of the nation; forever remember you for your courage, tenacity, sacrifices, resolve and fortitude to fight for the freedom of women, youth and the vulnerable; yes, the freedom of the nation.

To you nomzamo Zanyiwe Winniefred Madikizela-Mandela we say, Happy Heavenly Birthday.

To you, Commander yamaForces we say, miniemnandi.

To you, Cde President Winnie Madikizela-Mandela we say, a Happy Revolutionary Birthday!

To you Mama, we say, we shall forever cherish your memories, love and teachings – Happy Birthday!