A last homage to Winnie Mandela alias Mama Winnie

Escorted by motorcyclists, the coffin of “Mama Winnie”, covered with the South–African flag, left Saturday morning its residence of Soweto.

Tens of thousands of people paid a last homage Saturday, in the South–African ghetto of Soweto, in Winnie Madikizela–Mandela, the popular, but discussed muse fight against apartheid.

This ceremony concludes ten days of mourning national issued in remembering that which one called the “rock”, “the Mother of the nation”, the “liberator” or “heroin”, died on April 2nd at 81 years of the continuations of a long illness.

Poor suburbs of Johannesburg to which it remained faithful all its life. Arrived at the stage of Orlando, a few kilometres from there, the skin was greeted by some 20,000 people in mourning who, the raised fist, struck up with full lungs a song of the fight “It does not have nobody like Winnie Mandela there”.

Zenani Mandela–Dlamini benefitted from its speech violently to be caught of it with those which have “  diabolized  ” the image of his/her mother, it who fought and “  triumphed  ” over “  one over the most powerful and cruel modes over last century  ”.

“  It is my mother who kept alive the memory of my father  ” Nelson Mandela during her 27 years of detention before he becomes president in 1994, recalled his/her oldest daughter, Zenani Mandela–Dlamini, between the “  Viva Winnie, Viva  ” of crowd.

It is it which “  kept its name on the lips of people, which kept his memory in the heart of   people”, she added, in front of the coffin draped of the colors of South Africa and posed in the center of the stage.

“  Why not have made in the same way for its male counterparts and to recall to the world the many crimes which they committed before being called holy  ”, she denounced, regretting the treatment difference between men and women.

Winnie Mandela was put in question in the exactions made by his close guard, the “  Mandela United Football Club  ”, which made reign terror with Soweto at the end of the Eighties.

“Mama fought for our freedom. It is essential to pay him homage”, explained to the AFP Mufunwa Muhadi, 31 years, dressed in black and a coloured cap, the behaviour chosen by the many South–African ones to pay homage to “Winnie”. “It was one of our best soldiers. It fought from beginning to end. Leave in peace Mom. You played your part”, another spectator in mourning, Brian Magqaza greeted, 53 years.

Several foreign leaders, whose Heads of Congolese State Denis Sassou Nguesso and Namibian Hage Geingob, were expected the ceremony, where South African president Cyril Ramaphosa was to pronounce the funeral praise. Personalities like Jesse Jackson, militant emblematic of the civic rights to the United States, also attended funerals. “It never ceased fighting”, had greeted Friday Pasteur, 76 years old.

She was condemned in call to two years of suspended sentence and a fine for the removal in 1988 of four young men, of which one, Stompei Seipei, are then deceased.

Nearly a quarter century after the official end of apartheid in 1994, the motivations of this group remain always mysterious. According to a former repented police officer, the white mode had infiltrated it.

“  Rampart  ” against apartheid, Winnie Mandela has “  shown the way during the most difficult time  ”, for its part South African president Cyril Ramaphosa at the time of a ceremony with strong political connotation greeted.

“  Whereas we tell him good–bye, we must recognize that too often (…) we were not at his sides  ”, he conceded. “  I am sorry Mama that your organization (the African National congress, ANC, with the power) was long in honouring you as it should be.  ”

During the twenty–seven years of detention of Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela Mandela maintained the flame resistance to apartheid, in spite of tortures, loneliness, humiliations and the stays in prison.

In a similar vein, Julius Malema, the chief of the party of the radical left of the Combatants for economic freedom (EFF), very near to Winnie Mandela, denounced those which betrayed it and cry it today.

It remained “  revolutionist  ” until his death, “  it was never made buy  ”, Julius Malema between many songs of fight struck up by the stage launched.

In the platforms, the admirors of “  Mama Winnie  ” had come to celebrate its heritage.

 

 

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