Winnie Mandela

When my Scottish husband who came to South Africa as a child expressed a strong desire to return to the U.K. to explore his roots.

Thank you. So your family were not exciled?

Mandela said of Helen Suzman - she was undoubtedly the only real anti apartheid voice in parliament. If as you claim there were other groups fighting apartheid how come in 1961 every one in the parliament with the exception of Helen Suzman were voted out, she only scrapped through with a few hundred votes. Only the white South African had the vote so very little oposition to apartheid was there ?

I was a 10 year old child in 1961.

I'm not entering further into this discussion, I've had enough of politics to last me a lifetime.

Okay, I wasn't talking politics , I was talking of the brutality suffered by the Black S.A. It was you who brought the political parties into it.

I agree with ab you can’t compare MLK with WM - the political context ( as bad as it was in the southern USA) was nothing like the utter evil of apartheid SA. That’s not to say I approve of violence or of some of the things she was associated with in later years but you do know don’t you that when she kept being incarcerated she was sometimes kept naked and was refused sanitary protection so that menstrual blood ran down her legs?

Maryeliza, I couldn't believe one poster said let her rot.

Nelson Mandela Foundation

All South Africans are indebted to her, wether they acknowledge it or not.

Desmond .Tutu

She refused to be bowed by the imprisonment of her husband, the perpetual harassment of her family, detentions, bannings, banishment. Her courageous defiance
Was deeply inspirational to me and generations of activists.

Arch Bishop of Cape Town

I am humbled to have known her , I admired and respected her, May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

Jesse Jackson

In the darkest hours to free South Africa , with Nelson Mandela in prison, the face of hope and courage was Winnie Mandela . May she forever rest in power .

What DT and JJ say about her will do for me. I actually think that some of her severest critics on here really have no idea what apartheid really meant and how long it lasted. I’ve always despised Geoffrey Boycott over this stance on playing cricket there

I agree Maryeliza , not one of her critics here have said what they would have done if they had lived her life .

I have always believed the divorce of Nelson and Winnie was purely for political reasons, they continued their friendship and he asked for her when he was dying, she spent several hours with him at the end of his life . He did say he felt guilt over Winnie .

anniebach Have you read about what happened with "necklacing"? The victim (black, by the way, these methods weren't used on white people) would have a petrol-filled tyre placed round his/her neck and it would be ignited. It could take up to 20 minutes for the person to die. That is pretty horrific.

It is quite possible to understand why the IRA, the ANC, and other groups fighting for equality, became so brutalised by their treatment that they adopted the same sorts of terror tactics themselves. But understanding is different from condoning.

Yes I know what happens with necklacing . Thank you for explaining the victims were black, I didn't know !

And ......?

And, what? If you have a question please ask it