Winnie Mandela: Sanitising history an exercise in futility

“We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate……thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.” Maya Angelou (1928-2014).

Last week, I watched Julius Malema tear into the perceived enemies of the late South African heroine Winnie Mandela during her funeral at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto, calling them “sell outs”. Earlier, as arrangements for the funeral were under way, Malema had been heard to declare that “anyone who accuses Winnie Mandela of any crime is guilty of treason.”

Elsewhere, ANC executive member Jesse Duarte warned critics of the former politician: “Sit down and shut up. This is our hero. This is our heroine. She gave everything to us.”

In the febrile environment before the funeral, Madikizela-Mandela had been lionised as the greatest “Icon of The Struggle” against apartheid, being displayed more as the victim-than-the-culprit model of the battle to produce a radical alternative to apartheid.

Stompie Sempei was 14 when his decomposing body was found near Madikizela’s house in 1989, after he had been tortured following allegations that he was an apartheid police spy.

Soon after the death of Madikileza, Stompie’s mother announced that she would be attending her funeral.

Supporters of the former wife of Nelson Mandela are using Ms Sempei’s presence as proof that Madikileza was not Stompie’s killer, and, therefore, that all accusations against her of involvement in 15 other deaths in the late 1980s must have also been untrue.

There is no doubt that a unit was established inside the apartheid police known as the Stratcom, to besmirch the reputations of ANC leaders considered by the ruling white National Party government as too radical to negotiate with.

However, this unit was only set up in 1990 well after the spate of killings in which the Mandela Football Club played a prominent part. Sixteen witnesses, including parents of the dead boys or young men, told Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission apparently convincing accounts of Madikileza’s personal role in their children’s deaths.

Without appearing to pass judgment on these and other more personal accusations of infidelity against Winnie Mandela, it is clear that there has been a political charade to sanitise her image and elevate her to the status of a deity.

Many a famous leader has displayed their soft underbelly, whether in private or the public domain. John F. Kennedy was well known for his affinity to beautiful women, Winston Churchill for his partiality to hard drinks, Mahatma Gandhi perhaps not so well known for the strained relations with his children as depicted in the 2007 film Gandhi, My Father directed by Feroz Abbas Khan. But this has not detracted from their heroic deeds.

The reason we celebrate our national heroes is that first and foremost they are human beings who have travelled the extra mile and pushed the boundaries of human endeavour to leave this world a better place for society.

If they were any higher form of being, then perhaps we would not need to celebrate them because they would simply have been doing that which was expected of them and for which they were ideally suited anyway.

In a sermon from his book Strength to Love (1963) Martin Luther said, “We are not makers of history; we are made by history”. On the face of it this implies that we cannot change history to make it suit our circumstances today.

However, in the context of the entire sermon King is trying to express the opposite idea that people are so concerned about trying to fit in and uphold the status quo that they don’t try to make history; they just go with the flow.

He is encouraging people to rise up and make history because what we do today becomes tomorrow’s history. We cannot change the past, but we can shape our future by doing the right things today.

However, along the way in trying to shape the future we are susceptible to our human weaknesses and we shall make mistakes.

These mistakes form part and parcel of our human existence and must not be covered over in a bid to try and sanitise our history. They must be recorded as such for our history to remain credible, balanced and objective.