Disgraced Winnie Mandela set for political comeback

Published on Thursday 26 February 2009 22:12

WINNIE Madikizela-Mandela, the controversial former wife of Nelson Mandela, is on the verge of a sensational comeback after coming near the top of a list of African National Congress candidates for South Africa's 22 April general election.

Ms Madikizela-Mandela was sentenced to six years' imprisonment in 1988 for the kidnap and assault of murdered 14-year-old Stompie Moeketsi and to five years' imprisonment in 2003 on 43 counts of fraud.

She came fifth on the list of the first batch of 100 candidates for parliament released yesterday by the ANC's national executive committee.

Under the country's proportional representation system, Ms Madikizela-Mandela, 71, is certain to enter parliament and, because of her high list position, is likely to become a minister.

Her political career has appeared dead many times and few gave her a chance of a comeback when she was forced to resign as an MP and as president of the ANC Women's League after her 2003 conviction.

South Africa's constitution states that a person sentenced to more than 12 months in jail without the option of a fine is barred from parliament. In the case of Stompie Moeketsi, found with his throat slit on waste ground after the then Mrs Mandela had beaten him to a pulp, her long jail sentence was reduced inexplicably on appeal to a fine of 15,000 rand, then worth 3,000.

Her jailing for fraud was reduced on appeal to a five-year suspended sentence, later reduced to three-and-a-half years.

Opposition parties, which are expected to give the ANC its closest run since it came to power in 1994 after the demise of racial apartheid, face difficulty in deciding whether to challenge Ms Madikizela-Mandela's eligibility. Her popularity among ANC activists was confirmed at recent elections to the party's national executive committee, in which she came top.

But her wider popularity is doubtful. It may prove politically advantageous for the ANC's opponents to see her front the ruling party's campaign alongside its leader, Jacob Zuma. He expects to become state president in April but faces trial in August on 16 charges of fraud, corruption, racketeering, money laundering and tax evasion in connection with the country's graft-ridden 5.2 billion arms deal with European manufacturers.

Already, the ANC is acting as though there will be no legal challenge, arguing that Ms Madikizela-Mandela never served a single day of her total sentences of 11 years' imprisonment. The party's first TV campaign advert shows Nelson Mandela in iconic footage walking free in 1990, after nearly three decades in prison, with one hand a fist in the air and the other clasping the hand of his then wife, a vivacious 52-year-old Winnie.

The advert omits the fact that Mr Mandela later divorced her, citing her multiple adultery, which had left him "humiliated and lonely"; her hypocritical expressions of affection for him at public gatherings; and her lavish spending on make-up, clothes and parties she could not afford. Mr Mandela said Winnie had refused to sleep with him on his release from prison, and added: "I was the loneliest man during the period I stayed with her. If the entire universe persuaded me to reconcile I would not."

Winnie Mandela was for a long time one of the most famous women in the world. Tall and beautiful, she was revered and honoured at home and abroad as the Mother of the Nation. She achieved the status of international political martyr when she was sent by the apartheid-era police into internal exile in a grim country town that was South Africa's equivalent of the Soviet Gulag.

When she returned from internal exile she formed her notorious bodyguard, the Mandela United Football Club, which never played a match but was involved in scores of assassinations in the giant black township of Soweto. Slogans painted on walls there depicted her as the "Mugger of the Nation."