Questions and Answers

Some information about Winnie Mandela‘s personal point of view and background knowledge.

"Preventing the conflicts of tomorrow means changing the mindsets of the youth of today.”

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

1) People named Winnie Mandela in many different ways. But how would Winnie describe herself?

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was praised as a fearless fighter for justice, a feminist icon and as the “Mother of the Nation”. Others would describe her as a violent egomaniac person. She often said that it wouldn’t be her part to define who she is because it’s not about her but about what she stands for. “It has never been about me, the person, I’ve never regretted myself as an individual. I am just part of this whole liberation machine. […] I am just part of the whole collective.” She just didn’t like when people called her Mandela‘s wife because she wanted to be known as Winnie and her name should stand for her own emancipated personality. Probably, she disrelished that the crowd only knew her for being someone’s wife.

2) We know Winnie fought against apartheid, but who was her actual enemy?

We already got the point that Winnie boycotted the inhuman regime where people got judged by the place they came from, their skin colour and culture. Some people were less worth than others and didn’t get any human rights. “I have could never fully understand how human being could oppressed one another to that extent to the colour of your skin.” But apartheid definitely had just been one of Winnie’s enemies. Another major goal she wanted to reach had been the gender equality and therefore she cared about the same privileges for women as for men. She was thoroughly a feminist and believed that the world could become a better place if women got power and strength. “In South Africa, we believe that if the women were in the forefront, we would have long won our freedom.” We could say that Winnie Mandela‘s biggest enemy was the disrespect and hate against minorities. She dreamed of freedom for all humans and a place without abuse against children and women. So she fought for those qualities in every possible way. “I would take on the enemy as much as they oppressed me I decided I will fight them to the last drop of my blood and I will show them that women are going to bring about change in South Africa and we did.”

"I believe something is very wrong with the history of our country, and how we have messed up the African National Congress."

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

3) She is often known as a controversial woman. What was the problem about the methods she used?

Winnie reflected that hate is the base for brutality and physical fighting. Besides, she noticed that the enemy would transfer negative things and crimes to the own personality and mind. If there is hate, there will always be more hate. “What brutalised me so much was that I knew what it is to hate. […] I am the product of the masses of my country and the product of my enemy.” She also wanted to reach her goals no matter what happened with people who own another opinion. Winnie acted pretty brutally against people she defined as bad. So she wanted to get freedom and peace for her country by using violence. "We have no guns – we have only stones, boxes of matches and petrol. Together, hand in hand, with our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country."

5) What is the truth about the Mandela United Football club and what was its function?

The Mandela United Football Club was founded in 1985 as Winnie’s inofficial group of bodyguards and stooges. Its leader was Jerry Musivuzi Richardson.The boys carried out every crime Winnie ordered them, for example, they killed the 14-year-old Stompie Seipei in 1989. Erasmus, who is a former security branch policeman, described his experience in efforts to subvert anti-apartheid groups und claimed that the "entire soccer club was security branch, informers". Another witness, named Thabiso Mono, explained the violent encounter he had been confirmed when he met Winnie Mandela and her Football club. "Winnie Mandela was there. She is the one who started beating all of us. The rest followed, for at least one hour, if not two."

6) Winnie herself denies to have committed the crimes she is accused of, so how can we know what really happened?

While Winnie often denied her brutal crimes, we already have a lot of people who reported their opinion on her. Most of them described Winnie as a radical person. Additionally, there have also been times when she explained the methods she and her children used against the regime. “Our children have been so oppressed and met up with such violence from the government that they have resorted to that method of eliminating their enemies.“ Winnie spoke out against the use of force and asked the people to stay in peace. ″That was not the form or method approved by the ANC. No sane person would ever approve of that.″ But although she criticized the usage of violence, she committed crimes and abused some victims. As she said, she was just the answer to her enemy and so she had reflected some of their mistakes by making them too.

7) Why did Winnie and Nelson Mandela marry?

And what did Winnie think about Nelson after they divorced? They actually married because they were in love and not out of political profits. Winnie said that she has always been the person who knew Nelson Mandela better than anyone else, but she hadn’t had that much time to be close to him because of their work and separation. "I had so little time to love him. And that love has survived all these years of separation… perhaps if I'd had time to know him better I might have found a lot of faults, but I only had time to love him and long for him all the time." The personal change from both of them when they stand alone and got new points of view and other mindsets could be a relevant reason why they divorced. Winnie has never stopped loving Nelson, even though he had a new partner afterwards. She also came to his funeral.

8) What do her relatives and the people who knew Winnie personally think about her crimes?

Winnie Mandela‘s granddaughter Dlamini criticised some points Winnie did, but she is still proud of Winnie. "I think that there are some very valid points that she made. […] I won't go into specifics, but you know as her being my grandmother, I support her." Besides that, Zenani Mandela-Dlamini cleared up about the changes Winnie made for women and peace and justified her mother‘s methods by explaining the difficult essence of this battle. “My mother was one of many women who rose up against a nuclear-armed state to bring us the peace and democracy we enjoy today. The battle for our freedom was not some polite picnic to which you arrive with your best behaviour.”

9) Was Winnie Mandela corrupt and did she just care about herself?

Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of fraud 43 times and 25 times of theft, which means that violence and abuse had only been few out of much more crimes. Winnie herself stated not to be guilty, but was sentenced to five years in prison. She is said to have used money from applicants who paid into a cash register to get credit for burials later. Nevertheless, the judges of Pretoria High court ruled that "the crimes were not committed for personal gain". While the judge overturned the conviction for theft, she still stayed guilty for fraud and accepted a three years and six months suspended sentence. 

Note: Some quotes contain grammatical mistakes or unusual structures.