Thursday 11 March 2010

Former wife claims Mandela betrayed people




Former wife claims Mandela betrayed people

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is quoted as saying Nelson Mandela agreed to a bad deal for blacks
  • Daily Mail
  • Published: 17:35 March 10, 2010
Winnie Mandela
  • Winnie Mandela said her ex-husband had become a "corporate foundation" who was "wheeled out" only to raise money for the ANC party he once led.
  • Image Credit: Rex features
London: Former South African president Nelson Mandela has been accused by his former wife of betraying South Africa's black population.
In a savage attack, Winnie Mandela said he had done nothing for the poor and should not have accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with the man who jailed him, FW de Klerk.
The 73-year-old said her ex-husband had become a "corporate foundation" who was "wheeled out" only to raise money for the ANC party he once led.
She said Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a cretin and claimed the sacrifices of Steve Biko and others in the fight against apartheid were being overlooked.
The comments were made in an interview yesterday with Nadira Naipaul, the wife of novelist V.S. Naipaul.
Notorious
Winnie Mandela became notorious in 1991 when she was jailed for six years for the kidnap of Stompie Moeketsi — a sentence later cut to a fine. Stompie, 14, had been murdered three years earlier by members of Winnie Mandela's bodyguard.
She also caused outrage by endorsing the punishment of apartheid collaborators with "necklacing" — putting burning tyres around their necks.
On Tuesday she said: "This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family. You all must realise that Mandela was not the only man who suffered. There were many others, hundreds who languished in prison and died.
"Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a young revolutionary but look what came out.
"Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically we are still on the outside. The economy is very much ‘white'.
"I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel with his jailer de Klerk. Hand in hand they went. Do you think de Klerk released him from the goodness of his heart?
"He had to. The times dictated it, the world had changed."
The Mandelas, who divorced in 1996, were married for 38 years — although together for only five.
Winnie Mandela criticised her country's Truth and Reconciliation Committee — which she appeared before in 1997 and which implicated her in gross violations of human rights.
She said: "What good does the truth do? How does it help to anyone to know where and how their loved ones are killed or buried?

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