Faces of Africa - Winnie Mandela: Black Saint or Sinner? Part 2

Winnie Mandela loved by many for her struggle against apartheid in South Africa and despised by others because of cases of Fraud and Corruption this second episode of a two-part documentary explores how Winnie Mandela maintained her clean iconic status despite her repeated scandals [Music] [Music] the first part Winnie Mandela black saint or sinner explored how Winnie's support for Nelson Mandela led to his release in 1990 now in part two we explore how that heroic image was tarnished by scandals and how Winnie miraculously managed to survive [Music] them Mandela's release in 1990 was what the nation had been hoping for since 1964 we were ecstatic and uh life was real again and it was just too much excitement but for Winnie the happiness was shortlived her ghost from the past was soon to resurrect there was the Stompy SEI murder case for which she was sentenced in 1991 and it was revealed when he had been unfaithful during Nelson's imprisonment Winnie scandals were harming Nelson Mandela's bid for the 1994 presidential election he felt compelled to separate from her in 1992 Nelson Mandela made his decision public with this declaration my love for her remains undiminished however in view of the tensions that have risen owing to differences between ourselves in a number of issues in recent months we have mutually agreed that a separation would be best for each one of us things around Winnie quietened until 1993 when she was elected chair Lady of thec women's league then Nelson Mandela in 1994 was elected as South Africa's first black president never never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world president Mandela made Winnie a deputy minister in his cabinet like a reward for her struggle to liberate him but for Winnie things went horribly wrong again just a year later she was found responsible for mismanagement and dismissed and the tide kept turning against Winnie she was called before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the TRC in 1997 the TRC was set up to investigate wrongdoings during the apartheid era because I would like Winnie's 1988 Stomp murder case was under public scrutiny again but instead of cleaning up her reputation she gave a forced apology wi I am saying it is true things went horribly wrong I fully agree with that and for that part of those painful years when things went horribly wrong and we were aware of the fact that there were factors that led to that for that I am deeply sorry Winnie's seemingly cold-hearted apology has been studied by many amongst them is Professor Shea menes of the University of Vitz vat Rand in Johannesburg menes is a lecturer in political studies and knows Winnie because she was one of her students she always came surrounded by body bodyguards who stood outside the door while we had our classes she wasn't the best student that I'd ever had but her points of view was were always interesting she um she certainly had a a sort of very basic StreetWise view of politics that was quite different from the other students this was in the early 1990s and professor menes met Winnie again in 1997 because she was Affiliated to the TRC so was Pier pigu now project leader South Africa for the international crisis group pigu and menes both say Winnie had other things on her mind than apologizing there is no question that the um that that was a performance it was an orchestrated performance I think and I I think it was one that that had a um that was very very aware and I'm not sure that that she was the only one who orchestrated it I'm quite sure that there were people around her who were um governing the way in which she was presenting herself pigu says Winnie considered the TRC as a smear campaign against her because she was vying for a senior position in the a NC Mrs Mandela's response throughout was that everyone was lying everyone was mad or crazy or had some kind of Vendetta against her and there were certainly elements inside thec at that stage even though her former husband was president who were dead against her getting anywhere in that contest and uh in some respects uh Mrs Mandela also Al saw this as part of a campaign to bring her down in terms of her own political Ambitions so I think she was in combative mood from the get-go she knew she would face a lot of her detractors in terms of the specific allegations so she took on a stance which was uh rigid and inflexible and Unapologetic South African psychologist sath Cooper says that Winnie's rigid posture is still to be understood because a lot of information on the Soto violence was not available for the TRC I think that the truth of this matter will still be told someday I think that U many others who were there uh ought to have testified they didn't uh those who stood up to uh condemn her um had evidence but but they did not provide this evidence but her appearance before the TRC was not the end of Winnie's Fall From Grace in 2003 she was found guilty of misusing her position in thec women's league to sell funeral policies psychologist sat Cooper says that in the early days of South African parliamentary democracy there were no effective controls of power and that might have affected Winnie's Behavior that's something that happens when power has its own uh life and the power itself envelops people so that power uh if you feel that you are Untouchable you will engage in things where it's easy to say that you're doing something on behalf of the people and the people and your own interest become blurred and then the memory of suffering over all this period you know that adds to a feeling of entitlement in in that situation Professor menes also believes that her former student might have granted herself privileges in return for her long struggle what we have seen is a sense in which you know we didn't fight this struggle to be poor as smsung gyama said uh and and I think there's a sense of um of entitlement uh especially from kind of royalty royalty should be supported and this is the royal family of South Africa that we're talking about Winnie stepped down from thec women's league and in retrospect the 13-year period since Mandela's release reads like a catalog of disaster for Winnie yet Winnie's dramatic life began to attract artists musicians film directors and fashion designers there was the 2013 movie long walk to Freedom with Winnie Mandela most beautiful girl I've ever seen there was the 2011 movie Winnie by South African director Daryl rad distri he was touched by Winnie's life when she came to Johannesburg and got embroiled in what she got embroiled in then she meets Nelsa Mandela and now he turns out to be ultimately the most famous man of all time other than Jesus perhaps you know what I mean I don't know you know so that's an incredible story it's like in its own right how a young country girl falls in love with this guy who becomes the most famous guy in the world and go she goes through all of that trials and tribulations I became the best stick fighter in the district there wasn't a boy who could beat me you are a stick fighter yes so watch out and even in South Africa's reclusive opera scene Winnie's life inspired musicians and writers bongani doana Breen is the composer of Winnie The Opera he found that her life had everything Opera requires she um has suffered tragedies and and she's lived through uh some of the uh I think most um uh uh fundamental periods of our of our of our progress to to to to to Liberation and for me this whole life that she has led is is a tableau that is very operatic so it was not a difficult thing for me to to conceive of her life as an [Music] opera the Opera was well received by the audience and certainly by Winnie Mandela herself and I was glad I refused to read the script and I refused to be told in advance to what was going to be portrayed of me uh because I wanted it uh as an honest evaluation of the journey we have traveled and it is an honest portrayal and I'm very happy about it it is not doctored it is as it was [Music] the life of Winnie Mandela inspired a generation of musicians singer Ivon chakachaka dedicated a song to Winnie in 1987 when she was banned by the apartheid regime we wrote a song called Winnie win Mandela Winnie Winnie but obviously um it was not allowed so we then decided to change the song and wrote it I'm winning my dear love which was very clever because the song was saying Winnie Winnie my dear love I'm winning winning winning winning but when I went into the stadium to sing the song was we wiy Mandel Winnie weeny so I think we were very smart as young people we knew how to turn things things the way the regime wanted it but we knew what the song meant I'm winning winning winning winning I'm winning the dramatic life of Winnie somehow earned a big respect and this respect is also reflected in iconic images there is a clothing line called the Winnie Mandela signature collection designed by the South African son damasi he is also the designer of the shirts of Nelson Mandela she is a such of an inner soul person who doesn't dress to be se but dress to make a statement anything that she puts into her body it's a statement on its own because she understood the culture of African person Winnie Mandela despite her tainted image became a brand Larger than Life and she contributed to that in Soto by turning the house where she lived with Nelson into a museum and opening a restaurant next to it today buses are dropping off herds of tourists local entrepreneurs thrive on it but one could wonder whether visitors would have a notion of the violence that raged through these streets but when asked about Winnie's controversies people in South Africa AF did not forget them South Africans in several layers of society do remember but show forgiveness I believe everybody deserves a second chance okay and I also believe in Live and Let Live so with that in mind yes uh forgive is a beautiful strong word as far as I'm concent God only forgives but give her a chance let her move on it's up to her to prove herself right orong whatever the case may be if you were put under those circumstances or if I was put under those circumstances I'm I'm sorry I would have come out uh uh a much worse person but she has been able I think to have so much compassion um for people and I think she's come out of those experiences um maybe wiser I suppose but certainly she's come out of those I think stronger this is a woman who spent 27 years on the front line fighting to liberate a husband despite anything that happened during then the Stompy incidents the so-called lovers all of that stuff who cares the point is if it wasn't for Winnie Mandela we would never have been sitting in this garden now having this conversation I believe you know she was a a champion of the Liber ation struggle in South Africa South African analyst Pi pigu noticed this forgiveness but says it is something else that the majority in South Africa prefer to forget about their past to get on with their lives I'm curious about the notion of forgiveness I think in South Africa the this is more about avoidance rather than forgiveness I think it's about not engaging and and disengaging as opposed to actively forgiving somebody according to to Professor menes Winnie created her position during the struggle against apartheid and in the years after she solidified her position by grooming herself into a savior of the poor she never relinquished her critical voice and for example when there were problems when there were deaths anywhere in the townships the first person to be on the scene was Winnie Mandela talking very loudly and saying where is the executive of the ANC where are our leaders are they too afraid to come into the townships well here I am so she was already saying well I'm an independent person I'm an independent leader and I can stand here as one of the leaders I come from the rural areas and that is why I understand the poverty of our people more than anyone else because I lived it shall we and Winnie Mandela seems to have momentum in current times more than two decades after the abolishment of apartheid a new separation in South Africa has developed the separation between black and white transformed into a separation between rich and poor South Africa is now amongst the countries that have the deepest poverty Gap in the world the country with its nature and culture has all the elements needed to live a comfortable life but for the majority of the blacks in the townships not much has changed Winnie seems to be touched by it I deal with those cases every day of my life and most of the time when I'm not in Parliament that I get attacked by the da I am with the people in the squatter camp I deal with those people every day of my life H if they may be the changes H here and there which of course are admirable we have taken strides in this country but our greatest problem is the poverty of our people Winnie keeps drawing attention to this in her public appearances implicating that thec government has failed we can have those great policies uh we can have a great Constitution but none of those things translate in dealing with the poverty of our people and for as long as the people are as poor as they are this country is in trouble and the these ramblings the these demonstrations for water for delivery of services housing we have a problem Winnie is Raising in attention for the plight of people like 61-year-old mokim ma from Soto because other people they still stay in the sh there is no electricity there is no water there is no job and CA maazi a mother of five says that nowadays it's tough to make ends meat and this feeds frustrations towards thec things are not the way we thought they are going to be like as she says poor job if you you get a job less salary more hours only to find that one person is doing a job for three people for one salary and then 59-year-old mday in daa is also disappointed because things only improved by heart education has changed the sad thing is there are a lot of kids who are qualified they have degrees but they have no jobs today and that sort of cancels out that education aspect what's the point of being educated when you cannot use your education I've got two nieces with degrees today it's been years still they still don't have jobs this disappointment in thec government gave Winnie Mandela's campaign for the poor firm ground and it helped to repair her tainted Public Image it also enabled her to stay in Soto living amongst the people she both supported and disappointed and with the scandals behind her this could have been a quiet retirement at almost the age of 79 but not for Winnie things again seemed to be going horribly wrong first her former husband Nelson Mandela passed away at the end of 2013 and Nelson Mandela hadn't included Winnie in his will Pi pigu understands how painful that can be for Winnie but not her reaction afterwards she shocked the nation Once More by trying to get hold of Nelson Mandela's ancestral home in kunu some people do see it as uh unfair that he didn't provide some kind of symbolic gesture towards uh Mrs Mandela uh Mrs mad gazella Mandela uh so yes I mean I can understand that but her subsequent actions in terms of of uh trying to get the house in hu uh I think p portray her in an extremely negative light P pigu says the claim on kunu is also amazing since when he had a good income through her struggle pension and through a South African MP's salary but he says that might not be enough she has a small grouping that uh of Pas and bodyguards and so forth that that that need to be covered so there's a lot of expenses to keep the uh Winnie Mandela uh motorcade on the road and who is clearly seen as a potential money earner uh particularly if the gardens are finished down there which are the public gardens remembrance Gardens will be a place where tourists will visit money will be extracted there'll be some kind of visitors center and so forth so yes I understand why people are seeing this as uh that Mrs Mandela is being driven by uh potential pecuniary interests the matters surrounding Winnie's claim on the house in kunu are unfolding it's these contradictory elements that that are fascinating about her um and I think that there is still more to be written about her to be said about her more to be understood about her so that we can get a fully rounded picture of this really remarkable person who suffered the most enormous um harassment torture uh but who who through it all sort of remained this with with her dignity somehow [Music] intact whether or not she Fades to gray gracefully uh and and retires quietly into the countryside that seems unlikely given her Persona and I think that people will always be interested in what her opinion is about the extent to which thec has achieved what it set out to and what are the major struggles uh she's been critical of uh the movement that she struggled for and she has been critical of the things that have been happening in the name name of uh the organization that she has given her life for she's going to keep on sort of making statements and going to uh present herself at these different rallies at these different tragic moments and so on but I I don't think I don't see her becoming uh a leading figure in any government in the future I just think that in a a way she's she's now she's now being put into uh retirement rather than perhaps retiring and what of Winnie herself she says she is proud of her life but she is not necessarily the only mother of the nation I never felt it was referring to me alone I I considered all the women who have sacrificed their lives ER my age group I I consider all of them as mothers of the nation I never thought and never claimed that it is my personal title in any way because I was I didn't give it to myself it's the masters of this country I threw stones with uh when we were fighting and I'm one of those who engaged the enemy physically as well and very proud of it that I did what I did underground and I was was part of those who brought down the regime so I don't really mind whatever they call me sometimes that mother of the nation is translated negatively I don't really give a dam what is important is the fact that I am one of those who brought them down and I Walk Tall about that and I'll do it [Music] again Afric and to end this two-part documentary one can conclude that one question hasn't been answered yet about Winnie Mandela is she a saint or is she a sinner come on [Music] Afric [Music] Mal is

Channel: CGTN Africa

Views: 181,834

Keywords: Africa, News, CCTVAFRICA

Id: ZD4m12iTwRA

Length: 29min 17sec (1757 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2015