There was a pattern to the madness of apartheid

A FULL month before Soweto erupted on June 16, 1976, the Mother of the Nation, Winnie Mandela, as she was known then – minus the double-barrelled surname – was uprooted lock, stock and barrel to be dumped in the heart of rural Free State.

The people of Majwemasweu, Brandfort are unlikely to forget her any time soon.

A ravishing beauty, she arrived with her second daughter, Zindzi, in tow. Zenani was already in the Swaziland of the time, now eSwatini, building her life, including a marriage into the royal family.

Perhaps the bigots were too blind to see the enormous favour they had just done for this woman – she arrived in Majwemasweu, the textbook dust bowl and back of beyond, to be the queen.

She was always dressed to the nines. Do note that the closest the modest black women of the township had been to a stylish woman was the white Afrikaner missus in town, with her pedestrian sartorial attempt.

Mamane, as the iconic Struggle stalwart was affectionately called in this small agricultural town, left an indelible mark on the locals. She arrived here in knee-high boots and all other accessories in her wardrobe.

To declare that she was a beautiful woman is to be guilty of the mother of all under statements! She was a goddess.

She first came to Brandfort in May 1977 after a banishment order by the apartheid government and the people of Brandfort on this, the 45th anniversary of the Soweto student uprisings, and thus, l, can so boldly rejoice in reliving this memory of this feisty woman.

She arrived in Brandfort to redefine the status of the black woman.

She remains the epitome of resistance. She was the only woman of colour to stand up to racists, in their own turf – the shops and the one-horse town, to point a finger of rebuke at them. No “girl” or “maid” – the titles of address given to black women, had ever addressed the baas and the missus with such insolence.

Among the images of Mamane in Majwemasweu are pictures of a nattily dressed woman going to fetch water at one of the communal taps.

There is another model agency type picture of a forlorn Winnie at the gate of the four-roomed house to which she was banished.

Perhaps this reporter speaks as a smitten man, but I still want to know if there has been another beautiful banished lone suffering woman with young children, fed to the wolves of apartheid.

Those who got to know her in Majwemasweu were favoured to sights of Winnie dressed to kill, even for the most menial of chores.

The story goes that, a populist of note, she would wait for after-school hours to cause a riot among primary school learners in the area. In that winter of 1977, and subsequent others as she ensconced herself in the community, she’d buy bags of oranges and other goodies, to distribute among learners.

In her wake, she would leave with a raised fist, shouting Amandla!

Look at the pictures and remember greatness.

Winnie Nomzamo Mandela left after eight years when her house was petrol-bombed. Though she left, physically, she never really left the residents, who still have fond memories of her.

Madikizela-Mandela died on April 2, 2018, aged 81, and was buried at the Fourways Memorial Park, north of Johannesburg, on Saturday April 14, 2018.

What was she? A fashion icon? An activist? A leader? A woman of Xhosa descent?

She was all of those things – and more.

One woman who will never forget Madikizela-Mandela is her friend Nomafa Nora Moahluli, who defied the authorities by not ostracising the anti-apartheid activist when there were strict orders for residents to do so.

A schoolteacher by training, she was a neighbour of Madikizela-Mandela and Zindzi from the time they were dumped at house number 802 Deep Level.

“We opened the creche with only 15 children,” Moahluli told this newspaper in an interview in 2018.

She explained the low numbers thus: “When the creche opened, the mothers were threatened again not to take their children to this project started by the communist woman.

“Parents were reluctant to offer their children. They asked why they should take their kids to creche when they were capable of looking after their own.”

Today the creche still stands. It had 57 children in 2018.

But it is difficult to imagine how Brandfort can forget Winnie.

What stands out – her chic, politics or motherliness?

Go to Majwemasweu to see her work and to find answers to your lingering questions, whatever they may be. The Mother of the Nation lives!