Winnie: Mpondo princess and Thembu wife

With the death of Nkosikazi Winnie Nobandla Madikizela-Mandela, the Holomisa family, the amaHegebe clan, all the people of South Africa and the freedom-loving global community, have lost a friend, leader, mother and freedom fighter of unsurpassed courage

I convey our heartfelt condolences to her two daughters, Zenani and Zindzi, their children and grandchildren, the Madikizela and Mandela families, the Mpondo and Thembu nations, her political home the ANC and its allies, Cosatu and the SACP, uMkhonto weSizwe, and those for whom she lived and was ready to lay down her life, the people of South Africa.

I convey our condolences also especially to the traditional leaders of the land and their organisation, the Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA. At a time when it was not fashionable among the political elite to fraternise with traditional leaders, at the dawn of freedom, she saw value in the institution of traditional leadership – to the extent that she accepted a request to serve as national treasurer of Contralesa when she was elected to the national executive committee of the organisation for three years, even as she served as president of the ANC Women’s League and was a member of the ANC NEC.

On many an occasion, she would host at her Soweto home Thembu traditional leaders visiting Joburg to attend meetings of Contralesa. On such occasions she would regale us with fascinating stories of similar visits to Nkosi Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela (Ah! Dalibhunga) by other Thembu traditional leaders, His Majesty King Sabatha Dalindyebo (Ah! Jonguhlanga) and His Royal Highness Kaizer Mathanzima (Ah! Daliwonga) – royal and political rivals to whom she was bound through marriage to Mandela.

She never stopped reminding us of our huge responsibility to take up the leadership role that came with the powers bestowed upon us by our culture through our ancestors.

She impressed in our minds that traditional leadership was not a creation of colonialists or apartheid rulers and, therefore, should never be expected to play second fiddle to politicians or anyone else if Africa was to be truly free and regain her humanity.

In this regard, she was with us, as a member of Contralesa’s NEC, when we approached the Constitutional Court to oppose the certification of the present Constitution on the grounds of its Eurocentric inclination and its failure to adhere to the constitutional guidelines recognising the institution of traditional leadership.

She did not see a contradiction in being modern and true to her culture at the same time. She was a proud Mpondo princess and a committed Thembu wife, hence relatives from Transkei were always to be found in her home.

Her dress code was an inspiration which made us proud and confident to put on our African traditional regalia, even when we visited urban areas.

It was easy and a joy to work with her because together we would visit our kinsmen living in the informal settlements (which she correctly referred to as squatter camps), where she would attend to their concerns and needs as a leader and a social worker.

She was equally at home in the company of the black urban elite, or members of the white, coloured and Indian communities, most of whom adored and admired her.

Some people were intimidated by her intellect, courage, eloquence and physical presence. The love people had for her never confused her into believing she was better or superior to them.

The depiction “beauty and brains” did not even begin to define her. She was what in the countryside we would call imazi ebotshwa neenkabi – a cow inspanned with oxen. In other words an equal to any man.

Nobandla had a magnetism that defied understanding. Throngs of poor people in the squatter camps and rural villages would push past each other to get close to her, to touch her and to give her presents.

On one visit to our village in Ngqungqu, an old man who was hosting a traditional feast in honour of the ancestors, found his only R10 note in his pocket and foisted it into her hand as a gift even though she showed reluctance to impoverish a man clearly of meagre means.

Hawkers selling wearing apparel were always ready to give her items for free. Many of these would find their way to the destitute in squatter camps. As they say, akekh’ofana naye (there is none like her).

She and her former husband, Nkosi Dalibhunga, were the perfect match – one that was never allowed to realise its full potential. They were leaders each in their own right.

As part of the collective leadership of the liberation movement, we are happy to know that they did bring us freedom – the one leading from iSiqithi sikaNxele (Robben Island) and the other from the streets of Soweto, squatter camps and other townships. Their presence in the psyche of the freedom-hungry rural villagers was an inspiration that propelled the young to cross the country’s borders to swell the ranks of uMkhonto weSizwe under the phenomenal leadership of yet another Mpondo from Mbizana, the ANC’s president Oliver Reginald Tambo and also the iconic Thembu from Cofimvaba, Chris Hani.

As a tribal leader, I can surely be excused for referring to these leaders’ tribal identities, even when political correctness dictates that we turn a blind eye to such realities.

Yet, they neither ignored nor forgot their roots even as they played on the national and global stage.

It was Nobandla who dressed up Dalibhunga in his Thembu regalia when he appeared in the high court in another period of persecution at the hands of the white man in Africa.

She was conveying the message that this was Africa, and that those who refused to treat black people as equals in their motherland were intruders. Lala ngoxolo, Msuthu, Ngutyana, ntombi kaKhalembizeni. Induku uyibekil’ebandla! Ndlelantle!

• NKOSI PHATHEKILE HOLOMISA (Ah! Dilizintaba) leads of the Hegebe clan, is an ANC MP, Deputy Minister of Labour and honorary president of Contralesa