The passing away of struggle icon and “Mother of the Nation”, Mam Winnie Madikizela Mandela has led to many comments and reflections on her legacy which are profoundly germane for us in terms of where we are as a nation and where we aspire to be.
Mam Winnie Madikizela Mandela was a lifelong crusader for freedom, social justice, equality, inclusivity and a more equitable South African society but despite that fact, her legacy is highly debated depending on which side of the spectrum you fall in.
We have seen how others have tried to reduce her contribution to the anti-Apartheid struggle to merely being former President Nelson Mandela’s wife, a total distortion of her immense contribution to our people’s struggle for freedom.
Mam Winnie was able to carve a niche for herself as a true liberator of our people, independent of any relationship that she had with former President Nelson Mandela and it is because of the great sacrifices made by people like her that we enjoy the freedoms that we do in contemporary South Africa.
She was an advocate of the rights of women, but she wasn’t just a leader of women but South African society as a whole, hence the great outpourings of love and appreciation all over the country since the news of her passing away was announced earlier this week.
She was a leader that ordinary South Africans could easily identify with because in the days of the anti-apartheid struggle right into our new democracy, she was always on the ground with the people, advocating for their issues and fighting for the rights of those who are marginalised, who are on the periphery, the subalterns of this country that we are still in the process of building.