Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as a young woman. Picture: Alf Kumalo Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as a young woman. Picture: Alf Kumalo
Johannesburg - Vilakazi Street in Soweto was painted green and gold on Sunday afternoon as the ANC Women’s League hosted a mega party for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s 80th birthday celebration.
The partygoers were treated to cupcakes, song, dance and praise poetry as the Struggle stalwart looked on happily.
Her great-grandchildren accompanied Madikizela-Mandela to the lively gig and were entertained along with the crowd by maskandi performers and singers.
There was a special performance by women from the Chinese Business Women’s Association who, dressed in traditional Chinese outfits, danced gently while twirling colourful paper umbrellas.
Another international guest was Ventrice Morgan, a Jamaican reggae singer better know as Queen Ifrica, who performed a song for Madikizela-Mandela. Morgan is infamous for the homophobic comments she made in her home country in 2013.
The day was marked by a short address by ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini, who said that though they didn’t have a name to announce yet, the ANC was ready for a woman president.
“Forgive us, we didn’t understand things back then,” she said, referring to when Mandela declined nomination for ANC deputy president in 1997.
She added: ““Young women must learn resilience from Mama Winnie.”
Together, Dlamini and Madikizela-Mandela held a knife and cut Winnie’s enormous green cake, superimposed with a picture of the 80-year-old.
As the event came to a close, children and adults thronged around Madikizela-Mandela as she made her way to her black Audi, trying to touch her as they wished her a happy birthday. She shook hands with and smiled at many before she left the party a few minutes before sunset.
On Monday, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela turns 80, the latest milestone in the remarkable life of South Africa’s most prominent revolutionary.
Born in Mbizana, Transkei, three years before World War II broke out, she would go on to develop a far fierier reputation than her ex-husband, Nelson Mandela, as she kept the flames of liberation burning through the most tortured years of apartheid.
Ever the most outspoken of her generation of Struggle heroes, as recently as last week, Madikizela-Mandela was saying it was time for fresh leadership in the ANC.
This was the same week in which she managed to draw EFF leader Julius Malema – who is close to her own personality when she was young – to shake hands with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. This happened at her birthday party in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Although it is unlikely the country – and, perhaps, the world – will forget when she was surrounded by the notorious Mandela United Football Club, or the tragedy of James “Stompie” Seipei Moeketsi, Madikizela-Mandela has survived her darkest days.