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Qunu chief: It was Winnie’s house

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Chief Nokwanele Balizulu Picture: Leon Sadiki/City Press
Chief Nokwanele Balizulu Picture: Leon Sadiki/City Press

Qunu chief Nokwanele Balizulu remembers how Winnie Madikizela-Mandela became her pillar of strength when her late husband, Sonwabo, was imprisoned on Robben Island.

Madikizela-Mandela, whose then husband, Nelson Mandela, had been in the same prison, became her shoulder to cry on.

“I really admired her resilience. She did not fall apart just because her husband was in jail. She managed to keep it together. She did not see herself as the wife of a prisoner. She encouraged some of us in similar positions not to see ourselves as victims,” Balizulu said.

“I remember her saying to me: ‘Just because my husband was in jail did not mean the end of my life.’ She told me I must find comfort in the fact that my husband, just like hers, had been incarcerated for a righteous cause.”

Later a support group for the wives of political prisoners was formed.

“Together with the wife of the late Raymond Mhlaba, they loved to organise for us to come together to share our pain and experiences. There was never a time when you would feel alone. Mama Winnie, when she shared her personal experiences, you would feel your situation was better,” Balizulu said.

Sonwabo Balizulu was arrested in Zeerust in 1983 and sentenced to prison on Robben Island. He was released in April 1991, a year after Madiba left Victor Verster prison.

“If it was not for Mama Winnie and the support of her family, including Tata Mandela, I don’t think I would have made it myself. It was very hard. She was a big sister and a mother at the same time. I am very saddened by her
passing,” Balizulu said.

The chief, who is the nearest neighbour to Mandela’s Qunu homestead, said it was sad that Madikizela-Mandela died without getting “at least her portion of the Qunu home back”.

She said Madikizela-Mandela had died unhappy after being denied rights to the property she acquired from Balizulu’s brother-in-law, the then regent chief in the late 1980s.

“It is that portion of the land where the replica of the house in which Tata Mandela stayed in Victor Verster Prison is built,” she said.

“The site was then later extended, when I demarcated more land to Tata Mandela in 1996, where more houses are built and where the Mandela farm is situated.

“Mama Winnie was entitled to at least a part of the property, in my view. She should have been given her piece of land or recognised as co-owner.”

Balizulu said it was sad Madikizela-Mandela died without the case being concluded in the Constitutional Court.

“She really loved Qunu. I don’t think her fight over that land was selfish. She was fighting for many less powerful rural women who find themselves in similar situations, but have no resources to challenge the system,” she said.

The abaThembu kingdom agreed.

Acting King Azenathi Dalindyebo’s spokesperson, Prince Siganeko Dalindyebo, agreed Madikizela-Mandela was the Qunu property’s rightful owner, despite the fact that her claim was dismissed by both the Mthatha High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeals.

“Qunu is Mama Winnie’s home. We are not wavering about that. We cannot start lying now that the old lady has passed on,” Siganeko said.

Siganeko praised Madikizela-Mandela for supporting his older brother, King Buyelekhaya, when he returned from exile, and who spent time with her in Orlando, Soweto.

“She brought us up and taught us to be strong,” he said.

Balizulu recalled how Madikizela-Mandela was close to the Qunu community, and said she would bring blankets for elderly women when she visited the area.

“She was very respectable. She would attend funerals and meetings of the village. She wanted Qunu to be developed,” she said.

“But she also knew her place as wife and she respected traditions. For instance, we don’t know what her hair looked like because she would always have a doek on her head, which was a way of respecting the home to which she was married.

“She was that kind of person.”

Villager Nomzi Madyibi said when Madikizela-Mandela was there “you would see her chatting to elderly women, children, everyone”.

“She had time for all of us. I remember her giving us advice as young women about how we should ensure that we do not only go to school and acquire knowledge, but ensure that we encourage our children to do the same. She taught us to be self-reliant and not wait for government to do things for us.”



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