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Lovemore Ranga Mataire
In his much-publicised will, Mandela is said to have shared his estate among all those close to him: his children, grandchildren, secretary, even his party the ANC, his wife Graca Machel and also curiously, bequeathed some of his wealth to his wife’s children with Samora Machel.
Naturally, given Mandela’s legendary forgiving heart, public outrage over Winnie’s exclusion was inevitable given that she had remained part of Mandela’s life despite their divorce.
Of course,it is unusual for a deceased to bequeath his estate to an ex-wife especially if the individual had married another wife.
But it is also strange for the same individual to bequeath his belongings, in this case money, to his step-children who don’t share the same totem and belong to different ancestors.
The reason is that when someone dies, his soul is received by his departed ancestors and if they are not happy with the manner in which he has transcended to their world, then his soul will be tormented forever.
But we need not have such foreboding as to why a man known for his legendary magnanimity, including forgiving his jailers, would fail to extend such forgiveness to his erstwhile wife.
Yes, Mandela had no obligation to bequeath anything to his ex-wife but the argument is that he was no ordinary man, his was no ordinary life, he had no ordinary divorce and his was no ordinary funeral and his will must have reflected that extraordinary life.
While the temptation is to simply besmirch Mandela and sympathise with Winnie, this empathy soon dies down if one comes into contact with “Katiza’s Journey- Beneath South Africa’s Shame”, a book authored by Fred Bridgland.
This is the true story of one Katiza Cebekhulu, whose first name would soon epitomise his future escape from an obvious brutal death at the hands of the so-called mother of the nation.
After leaving his home in troubled Mpumalanga, Zululand in 1988 for Johannesburg, Katiza plunged into a frenzy world of crime and violence after being introduced to one Nonzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Mandela. Katiza was put into Winnie’s custody and became a pivotal member of the notorious Mandela United Football Club, living in her Soweto house and she sending him to school.
Soon Katiza found himself in the web of the horrendous death of Stompie Moeketsi, who was beaten to a stain on the orders of Winnie Mandela.
What Katiza witnessed on that day in December 1988 is proof that the alibi that freed Winnie Mandela from her involvement in the death of Moeketsi was a lie. As illustrated in the book, what Katiza saw in the months following Stompie’s death is proof of her involvement in the violent deaths of several young black township activists.
Unknown to most South Africans, Katiza’s story was a closely guarded secret within and beyond the continent, known only to a few Heads of State and a coterie of individuals within the ANC.
Like Marechera’s “House of Hunger”, Katiza seemed to have been born for misfortune. His unmarried, illiterate mother, Joyce Cebekhulu, told him he was rotten in the womb and that she had given birth to a dog. He barely knew his father, a car thief, now dead, who spent long periods in prison and never lived with Joyce.
He never liked his mother’s common-law husband and his dislike became hatred when he discovered that one of his small step-sisters was being sexually abused by Sebese.
“Katiza was born on February 12, 1970 in Joyce’s township house, a typical tiny matchbox dwelling rented from the municipality. Fourteen family members from three generations, including Joyce’s mother Gladys, crowded into one scullery, a living room and two small bedrooms. Katiza slept wrapped in blankets on the concrete floor under the scullery table. All 14 were supported by the Rand 100 (then worth 18 pounds) that Joyce Cebekhulu earned as a labourer at a white-owned chicken factory farm,” narrated Bridgland in the first chapter of the book.
It is this dire hopelessness and biting poverty that made Katiza such a malleable instrument of coercion, brutal murder and all things gory when he joined the Mandela United Football Club under the custodianship of Winnie Mandela.
Mandela, just released from prison, is said to have been shocked that his wife had been fingered in a number of murders involving young black township boys.
At the time of Mandela’s release Katiza was languishing in jail unable to see the leader he had so gallantly waited for for so long.
He had been fingered in the death of Stompie Moeketsi but the truth was that Katiza knew a lot of gory and lurid details about Winnie Mandela and needed to be eliminated.
Online Reporter