Winnie Mandela

I accept she lived under a brutal regime but I have a horror of murder and brutality, whatever the 'provocation'.

Winnie married age 22, had two children and at 29 her husband was sentenced to life imprisonment. Life must have been hard for Mandela in prison but for Winnie? She was brutalised , her homes demolished, placed in solitary confinement , she led the campaign to free Mandela, she fought for 27 years regardless of constant persecution. She lived in .Soweto which had suffered mass murder. She never gave up. Mandela said he felt guilt over Winnie, he should have. She suffered much more than he did.

Easy to say she should have done this or shouldn't have done that. Life during apartheid was hell for the black S,A. what was is like for this woman. She fought for her people, Mandela had 27 years to ponder , Winnie had 27 years of hell but never gave up. When he was dying Winnie was with Mandela, they both sacrificed their lives to fight an evil regime .

How many of us could have lived her life.

I agree Eloethan she didn't just encourage or justify necklacing she advocated it.

In a speech in 1986 Winnie Mandela is reported to have said:

""with our boxes of matches and our necklaces we will liberate this country."

Of course, the horrors of the apartheid regime are well known and it is perhaps understandable that people who have been brutalised sometimes resort to using the same levels of brutality as were used on them. But, whatever the provocation, I don't think it should be encouraged or justified.

I've just watched the news and seen the item about the passing of Winnie Mandela. TBH I was rather shocked to hear her referred to as 'the mother of the nation'.

She had blood on her hands, and not just the blood of that 14 year old boy.

I don't doubt that she suffered but she caused the suffering of others.

You said in you OP Annie that you hope history will be kind to her. I hope history gives an honest and true account of her life; warts and all.

This is from one of her body guards, Jerry Richardson at the 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' : "My hands are full of blood today because I would be instructed to kill and I would do as I was told".

He told of using garden shears to kill Stompie Seipie in 1982 after beating him for days. He said Mrs. Mandella participated in the beatings using her hands, fists and a whip, but she never did any of the killing. This is from the New York Times in 1997.

He went on to say that he participated in 4 killings that she ordered, saying that when he returned from one such killing, she embraced him and said "my boy, my boy".

The Truth Commission which is charged with investigating apartheid-era atrocities, has been holding hearings on the role of Mrs. Mandela and her football club in 18 cases of murder or assault in the 1980's.

With her as mother of the nation, perhaps the nation would have been better an orphan.

Sorry implicated not implemented
Oh for an edit button..... sigh

‘Implemented’ is the word she always denied it and we know how smear campaigns work don’t we ? Only she will ever know if she was guilty or not but my goodness she was a fighter I hope she is thought of for all her brave acts She has Desmond Tutu on her side and I believe him to be a good and honest man

She never gave in. Not one inch - and sometimes, this landed her in trouble. As anti-apartheid activists Mosioua Lekota noted in her defence: "Those who did nothing under apartheid never made mistakes."
She will be remembered for her fight against an inhumane system, rather than for the mistakes she made in that fight.

From the BBC website

I suppose, like most people, she did good things and bad things. But I do recall her being implicated in the very brutal "necklacing" of people who were thought to have informed on ANC members, and for that reason, my feelings about her are mixed.

I agree with ab. She lived under one of the most evil regimes known to man - our country supported that regime in so many ways. It’s easy to expect the impossible from her - all the things she should have done. I will never forget the apologists for SA in this country and MTs support for them, the Conservative Students and their Hang Mandela badges. She lived a life that none of us can imagine and suffered so much. RIP

Annie she did suffer and that cannot be undone, and for that she deserves sympathy. However, she was directly implicated in the murder (by her bodyguards) of a child, she rampantly misused her position to fraudulently obtain loans and financial gain, she fell far short of setting the type of example that she could have set post-apartheid to contribute to peace instead of inciting the dreadful torture of "necklacing" her own people. She should have learnt from Nelson, her then husband, who distanced himself from her by divorcing her.

She should have fought the ANC's decline into corruption and lack of delivery, just as hard as she fought against Apartheid in the early days. Then history could rightly have judged her kindly.