Monday, July 13, 2020

ZINDZI MANDELA WAS A FIERCE LIBERATOR WITH A KIND HEART - SISULU
"She was a very angry young woman; and she was a voice of young people, clear about everybody’s role in the struggle."

Zindzi Mandela. Picture: @ZindziMandela/Twitter.

Nthakoana Ngatane
Eyewitness News

JOHANNESBURG - Water and Sanitation Minister and Mandela family friend Lindiwe Sisulu on Monday told Eyewitness News that Zindzi Mandela resented being seen first as a daughter of struggle icons because she was a fierce fighter for liberation.

News of Mandela's death came on Monday morning, with the Presidency saying she died in the early hours at a Johannesburg hospital.

She said that while all children of struggle heroes didn't have easy childhoods Mandela got the raw end of the deal. Sisulu said Mandela was one of the youngest of the struggle heroes children, and she didn't have an easy childhood

Sisulu, who is now in Cape Town, said she was doing everything she could to be part of Zindzi’s send off.

"She was a very angry young woman; and she was a voice of young people, clear about everybody’s role in the struggle," Sisulu added.

Yet Mandela remained grounded

"She had a very kind heart and extraordinary combination of a very hard, fierce fighter for liberation," Sisulu said.

The minister said the former ambassador craved being her own person.

"I don't think she was given the space. She was always looked at as somebody’s daughter and she resented that. She wanted to contribute in her own right," Sisulu said.

Sisulu said Nelson Mandela’s first wife was her aunt, and so Mandela was also her sister and she would attend her funeral.

Family and contribution

Meanwhile, International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor said on Monday she was in touch Mandela’s sister Zenani - who is Ambassador to South Korea - and arrangements were under way for her to come home and attend to her sister’s funeral

Pandor said Mandela connected South Africa with the anti-apartheid movement and the government of Denmark. Pandor confirmed that Mandela's term there ended and that she was being redeployed to Liberia.

Pandor said she was shocked by Mandela's passing

Nelson Mandela Foundation CEO Sello Hatang said he was paralysed and heart broken by Mandela’s passing. But he recalled how her father’s memoirs described her as a rock.

He said she would be remembered for her extraordinary life and the courageous work she did with the Foundation on projects, including a book titledHunger For Freedom by Anna Trapido.

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