The psalmist is right – there is time to be born and time to die. For Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the time to die came on the 2nd of this month. On Wednesday, thousands of mourners converged on the center of the popular anti-apartheid landmark called Soweto township, to pay their last respects to Nelson Mandela’s estranged wife and hero, Winnie Mandela.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, himself an ardent anti-apartheid activist, was right in choosing the Orlando Stadium, a 37,000-capacity facility – for both the memorial service and the full state funeral planned for Saturday (tomorrow). But it was also symbolic.
Some notable anti-apartheid figures moved away from townships like Soweto to areas formerly occupied by White after the dismantling of apartheid, Winnie Mandela preferred to stay in Soweto where she met Nelson Mandela at a bus stop in 1957.
The event was held amidst great sunshine which broke through a dense cloud cover over Soweto, while outside the stadium a motorcycle club whose members were donning the colours of the African National Congress, ANC, trooped in to salute the fallen woman of substance.
The Soweto Gospel Choir took the band stand and dished out a variety of trendy praise songs which forced the people to temporarily brighten up and dance to the moving renditions.
Sensing the mood of the dancing crowd, the lead disc jockey controlling the booming microphone shouted “Long live the fighting spirit of Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela” and “Viva Soweto!”
Members of the radical opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, EFF, who labored hard to get Winnie into their fold, were conspicuously missing at the event. Observers say tomorrow’s event is likely to be the climax as freedom fighters of all hue and politicians from around the world will be in South Africa.
