Zindziswa &#8216;Zindzi&#8217; Mandela has died. The 59-year-old is believed to have breathed her last in a Johannesburg hospital in the early hours of July 13, Monday, SABC is reporting.



Zindzi was the daughter of struggle icons, South Africa&#8217;s former president Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and currently serving as South Africa&#8217;s ambassador to Denmark.



In December 2014, Zindzi graced the cover of FORBES WOMAN AFRICA alongside her mother, a year after her father’s death. 







<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="733" height="960" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Forbes-cover.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46476" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Forbes-cover.jpg 733w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Forbes-cover-300x393.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Forbes-cover-600x786.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Forbes-cover-229x300.jpg 229w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 733px) 100vw, 733px" /></figure>



She lost her 13-year-old granddaughter, Zenani, in a car crash after a pre-tournament concert during the 2010 FIFA World Cup that took place in South Africa.



In 2018, her mother Winnie, passed away. 



Zindzi is survived by her four children, husband and grandchildren.



.

zindzi

Zindzi Mandela passes away, aged 59

The world of comic books is dominated by stories from the West. Two South African brothers are helping reshape that narrative with a central character inspired by the iconic hero.



Nelson Mandela had his own following at the recent Comic Con Africa convention at the end of September in Johannesburg.



At the center of all the organized chaos at the event at the
Gallagher Convention Centre attended by 71,000 visitors over four days was a
comic book bearing the late South African president’s name created by brothers
Phemelo, 28, and Omphile Dibodu, 25.



The comic book, Young Nelson, features an African superhero,
for readers in the continent and beyond.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="819" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-819x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42302" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-819x1024.jpg 819w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-300x375.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-600x750.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-240x300.jpg 240w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px" /></figure>



Co-founders of Rainbow Nations Comics, a black-owned comic book and publishing company established in 2018, the Dibodu brothers were born and bred in Rustenburg, known as ‘platinum city’, in South Africa’s North West province. 



Far from their hometown, the duo were in the big city for
the event, showcasing their creations to an adept audience – people dressed as
superheroes, cyborgs and zombies – who crowded around their stand and were as
colorful as the comic books they were thumbing through. 



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“Wow, that looks cool, who is Young Nelson?” asked a curious
bystander.



Phemelo was ready with his answers even as his brother
assisted with more queries.&nbsp; 



“Young Nelson is a proudly South African black comic book inspired by the late Nelson Mandela,” responded Phemelo.



In front of him, on the table, a large poster of Young Nelson, featuring a young black male with the South African flag over his shoulders and a gold-colored map of Africa emblazoned on his shirt.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="960" height="960" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/70915590_2143969049237836_5672567550701993984_n.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42307" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/70915590_2143969049237836_5672567550701993984_n.jpg 960w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/70915590_2143969049237836_5672567550701993984_n-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/70915590_2143969049237836_5672567550701993984_n-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/70915590_2143969049237836_5672567550701993984_n-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/70915590_2143969049237836_5672567550701993984_n-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/70915590_2143969049237836_5672567550701993984_n-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/70915590_2143969049237836_5672567550701993984_n-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></figure>



This day saw the launch of the very first issue of Young Nelson titled An Act of Kindness, for R20 ($1.3) a copy.



Phemelo, the writer, and Omphile, the illustrator, say they
were inspired by Mandela and some of their own life experiences growing up.



“I think I wanted to pay tribute to the old man in a way
that it would hopefully inspire others to look at him in the way that many
South Africans see him,” says Phemelo to FORBES AFRICA.



In the story, ‘Young Nelson’ gets his nickname when he volunteers at a local boxing gym. The people watching him witness his skills and ability to solve problems, so they equate him to the young Mandela, who was famously a boxer in his youth.



“[The lead character] doesn’t like the nickname at first but
once he sees the significance of it and his heroics, how they are taken up by
the community to represent who they are, he takes the name and rolls with it
and that’s his superhero name going forward with the series,” Phemelo explains.



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Young Nelson’s real name in the comic is actually ‘Thabo Mo
Afrika’, inspired by South African president Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded
Mandela.



“ ‘Mo Afrika’ is a generic surname [which] translated into
English is ‘an African’. So I wanted to see every African seeing themselves in
Young Nelson,” Phemelo adds.



The young writer’s plan is to take his product to bigger markets, but for now, the African comic industry is a tough market to capture for lack of any funding.



“Imagine getting paid for what you are doing. That would [make a] big difference. Once people realize that their art can be compensated, more of us will actually start creating content the world would want to start reading,” he says. 



Bill Masuku, a speaker at the Comic Con event and who is
also a digital artist, shares the same sentiments.



“In Zimbabwe, where I am from, it is pretty grassroots.
Everyone is self-publishing and if you don’t really have a passion for it, the
book won’t come out,” says Masuku, who has been a part of the African comic
industry for over three years. He is the founder of Enigma Comix Africa, and
creator of Razor-Man and Captain South Africa. 



“As much as new creatives are coming out every day, what
really makes the comic book industry is distribution. And seeing that [Young
Nelson] has such widespread potential really makes me hopeful for where we are
going,” says Masuku.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42303" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n-80x80.jpg 80w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/53559971_409471066265829_2304970625718228030_n.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



For comic books to thrive on the continent, they need a big
financial push from publishers, distributors or investors, unlike any other
medium.



The Dibodu brothers were fortunate to have been sponsored by
the Rustenburg Herald, a weekly local newspaper in Rustenburg.



“The problem with creating by yourself is that you can only
create at a certain rate and you do burn out. So you find people who have been
making comics who have three or four issues out and it’s easy to forget about
them as a consumer,” he adds.



Globally, platforms like Weekly Shōnen Jump in Japan make it
easy for Japanese creatives to publish their work as the comic book and manga
industry is thriving there, making it one of the best-selling magazines. Weekly
Shōnen Jump has sold over 7.5 billion copies since 1968.



But the African comic industry has a long way to go.



Kugali, a digital platform founded by three entrepreneurs
and friends from Nigeria and Uganda, is designed to help people find and share
the best African narratives and comics. It is an entertainment company that
focuses on telling stories inspired by Africans, offering much-needed exposure
to young creatives such as Masuku and the Dibodu brothers. For now, the
reception the Dibodus are receiving give them some hope.



“It’s been awesome and inspirational. I didn’t know people
felt the same way as me. It’s amazing when people are [reading] the story of
the character and people are saying ‘you know what, that’s what we need’,” says
Phemelo. At the end of Comic Con, they managed to sell over 300 copies of Young
Nelson.



“People are catching onto the culture. I think it might even
grow bigger than the American industry only because I think we are a very
artistic community… Whether you look at the hieroglyphics in Egypt or the cave
paintings by the bushmen in South Africa, we draw,” he says.



He also plans to sell his comics to local book stores in the country.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1018" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-1024x1018.png" alt="" class="wp-image-42306" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-1024x1018.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-300x298.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-100x100.png 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-600x597.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-150x150.png 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-768x764.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-1536x1527.png 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-80x80.png 80w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster.png 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



The team is currently working on their next creation – a
black African female superhero called Imbokodo.



“We are looking for new creators we can partner with and
create our own justice league, our own Avengers, to actually have young kids in
South Africa look at their heroes the same way Americans look at their heroes
in the Comic Cons to come.” 



Young Nelson is a refreshing reminder that not all heroes wear capes.

RNC – Phemelo Dibodu (left) and Omphile Dibodu (right)

Colors For Mandela

In the afternoon on what was a public holiday in South Africa, news started trickling in of Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela’s death, of illness at the Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg. She was 81.



On 2 April 2018 South Africa would mourn her passing for the next couple of weeks. As would the world.



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="302" height="416" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie1.png" alt="" data-id="39964" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39964" class="wp-image-39964" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie1.png 302w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie1-300x413.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie1-218x300.png 218w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 302px) 100vw, 302px" /><figcaption>Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla </figcaption></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="407" height="594" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/winnie3.png" alt="" data-id="39965" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39965" class="wp-image-39965" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/winnie3.png 407w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/winnie3-300x438.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/winnie3-206x300.png 206w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px" /><figcaption>Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and daughter Zindzi. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla </figcaption></figure></li></ul>



Mama Winnie was gone, marking the end of an era, yet in death, rekindling memories of a painful apartheid past, against which she fought valiantly, controversially; the fearless, feisty fighter who famously clenched her fist to rallying cries of ‘amandla’ (Zulu word for ‘power’), had clenched her fists forever. 



A hero had departed.



Anti-apartheid activist, politician, struggle stalwart and ex-wife of South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela, Madikizela-Mandela was known as the Mother of the Nation.



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="925" height="611" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie5.png" alt="" data-id="39966" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39966" class="wp-image-39966" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie5.png 925w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie5-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie5-600x396.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie5-768x507.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 925px) 100vw, 925px" /></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="924" height="613" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie8.png" alt="" data-id="39967" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39967" class="wp-image-39967" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie8.png 924w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie8-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie8-600x398.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie8-768x510.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px" /></figure></li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="925" height="618" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie9.png" alt="" data-id="39968" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39968" class="wp-image-39968" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie9.png 925w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie9-300x200.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie9-600x401.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie9-768x513.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 925px) 100vw, 925px" /></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="927" height="615" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie13.png" alt="" data-id="39969" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39969" class="wp-image-39969" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie13.png 927w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie13-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie13-600x398.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie13-768x510.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px" /></figure></li></ul>



Day six after Madikizela-Mandela’s death, hundreds gathered for a tribute ceremony to honor her at Constitutional Hill, where she was prisoner number 1323/69 when jailed by the apartheid government in the last century.



“It’s really hard to stand here, we are sore. ‘Big Mama’ as we called her, took us by surprise,” said Ndileka Mandela, Madikizela-Mandela’s eldest granddaughter before breaking down on stage, and was thereafter warmly comforted by Graça Machel, former first lady and wife of the late South African president Mandela.



“Winnie was my big sister, I take long to process pain, I prefer to be quiet to feel and understand it. It is too early to process the pain we are going through,” said Machel.



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-4 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="925" height="612" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie6.png" alt="" data-id="39974" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39974" class="wp-image-39974" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie6.png 925w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie6-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie6-600x397.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie6-768x508.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 925px) 100vw, 925px" /></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="927" height="616" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie11.png" alt="" data-id="39975" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39975" class="wp-image-39975" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie11.png 927w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie11-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie11-600x399.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie11-768x510.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px" /></figure></li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-5 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="407" height="620" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie7.png" alt="" data-id="39972" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39972" class="wp-image-39972" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie7.png 407w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie7-300x457.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie7-197x300.png 197w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px" /></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="411" height="615" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie12.png" alt="" data-id="39973" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39973" class="wp-image-39973" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie12.png 411w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie12-300x449.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie12-200x300.png 200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" /></figure></li></ul>



 The funeral on April 14; a Saturday morning that brought together tens of thousands of mourners at Orlando Stadium, for the day their Mother would be laid to rest. 



The mourners cheered, cried, and stood up raising their fists, chanting and shouting Mama Winnie’s name. At that very moment, blood rushed through our veins.



It felt like the whole stadium was shaking but in reality, photographers were pushing and shoving to get the perfect picture, that historic picture; and it was something we most definitely captured too.



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-6 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="927" height="616" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie14.png" alt="" data-id="39970" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39970" class="wp-image-39970" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie14.png 927w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie14-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie14-600x399.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie14-768x510.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px" /></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="926" height="611" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie15.png" alt="" data-id="39971" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=39971" class="wp-image-39971" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie15.png 926w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie15-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie15-600x396.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Winnie15-768x507.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" /></figure></li></ul>

Winnie4

IN PICTURES | 1 Year On : Remembering Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela

It has been 22 years since he led South Africa to glory in the African Cup of Nations. In a new book, Clive Barker recounts his career as a salesman by day and taxi driver by night, and to FORBES AFRICA, that he is not done with the future of African football.

We are in Melville, a charming suburb in Johannesburg, and finding house number 55 is not as easy as Google Maps makes it out to be.
Finally, we arrive, there are two dogs by the gate, we ring the bell, and Clive Barker’s son answers the door.
The small room has a larger-than-life presence – Barker is on a couch watching a World Cup match repeat. It’s the right time and place to watch world soccer, in the company of a legend.
Standing up, shaking hands, the genial septuagenarian directs us to the patio not too far from the television and facing a landscaped yard.
The first South African coach to qualify for the World Cup in 1998, before that, Barker had led South Africa to victory in the African Cup of Nations in 1996.
For a country going through reconciliation and healing since the end of apartheid only two years earlier, it was historic. That moment changed a country’s destiny in sport, as also Barker’s life.
“People often say to me, ‘what was the biggest moment in your football career?’ And I say ‘it was when Nelson Mandela became the president of this country, he promised to come and watch us play football’. In those days, nobody came to watch us play besides the supporters and on his big day, South Africa’s greatest day, he decided to come watch us play against Zambia and of course we won. He gave us a speech which went on for 25 minutes and the Zambians blamed that for the reason they lost,” says Barker, a tear rolling down his cheek as he speaks about his interactions with Mandela.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/05/07/from-football-to-fashion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: From Football To Fashion</a>
Barker made his professional debut at the age of 17, and has had a long history in the game, from being close to starting an international career with Leicester in England to now unearthing soccer talent in South Africa’s townships.
“I played football professionally and of course, everybody has a dream to play overseas. I was on track to do that. Unfortunately, over an Easter weekend, we played in Johannesburg against a team called Rangers. I injured my knee very badly and in those days, you could do the cartilage operation but you couldn’t do the ligament operation and so I had my first setback and three years later, when the other knee went, that’s when I decided to go into coaching,” says Barker.
Without throwing in the towel after the injury, Barker decided to go into business to make ends meet. The failure of his venture did not keep him down. To avoid bankruptcy, and to avoid losing his family home, more sacrifices had to be made.
<div id="attachment_37083" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37083" class="wp-image-37083 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-1024x649.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="469" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-1024x649.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-300x190.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-600x380.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-768x487.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5.jpg 1654w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Clive Barker. Photo by Gypseenia Lion</div>
“I had to make that decision. I was going to lose my house and of course my family stayed there. I thought the only thing I could do was work during the night and I found that driving taxis was good. And I became a taxi driver. A salesperson by day and a taxi driver by night. We were able to do our shopping on Saturdays with the money we earned during the week. I paid off the creditors because I did not want to cross the street and someone tells me I owe them money.”
Football is similar to business, he says. “You start out as an individual, you have an idea and you develop it.”
Starting his coaching career after working as a driver for almost a year in 1973, Barker has groomed and trained a number of soccer stars such as Andre Arendse, Shaun Bartlett and Steve Komphela who continue in their coaching careers.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sometime-in-africa/2013/09/01/tattered-blue-banner-sea-gold/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: A Tattered Blue Banner In A Sea Of Gold</a>
This undiscovered talent in townships brought to light by Barker over the years shaped legends in South African football.
“Thank goodness I went to the townships because I would have never known what was going on in South Africa,” he says.
Coaching patterns have changed drastically from the classic tracksuit-wearing coach paying close attention on the 90-minute game while shouting at the referee from the sidelines.
“In the olden days, you were more refined and were looked up to as a father figure, making all these runs, turns and somersaults and obscenities to the referee, there was a pattern emerging. My pattern emerged when we [AmaZulu] played Kaizer Chiefs in KwaMashu [a township in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province]. We won by 3-2, and the team hoisted me up at the end of the game and they pickpocketed me, from there on, I learned tracksuits are nothing more than tracksuits.”
Barker is looking forward to set his feet on the green pitch – he has been on a break.
“At the moment, I’m recovering from an illness that I had. I am starting to feel better. It’s the reason why I hadn’t been coaching for the last year-and-half but I’m certainly feeling well and when I am recovered, I am hoping to go back to coaching.”
In South Africa, soccer has always been more than a match, it’s a heady mixture of emotions and the shrill vuvuzelas (plastic horn). In Barker’s time, players had signature moves or tricks to keep the spectators entertained. This is one element that remains unique to South African football.
“If we copy the likes of Brazil, we could never beat them; if we copied the Italian style of football we could never beat them. If we developed the style of football that we had, then there was a pattern to it. Imagine me going to Doctor Khumalo or ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu saying ‘you can’t dribble, you can’t back-heel the ball’. If I took the nice part of football away from them, we would end up with robots.
<blockquote>“I think we lost out on a great opportunity to make a huge imprint in football not only in Africa in particular but throughout the whole world”.</blockquote>
With the non-stop action and unpredictability of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, African representation has declined drastically nearing the final stages.
The 74-year-old patriot, with great disappointment, tells FORBES AFRICA he feels sad in many ways as he had always been one to root for an African country to be world champions. However, according to Barker, not all hope is lost for Africa.
“Once we go back to the drawing board, and have a look at why we are not dominating&#8230; I know the better players get pulled over to Europe, and they could control the destiny. If you look at the World Cup and the countries that qualified, I can tell you now that France is going to win. I think because they add a bit of the African flair.”
Coach, a book on the life and times of Barker, was launched in July.
“The game has been so good to me, the people of South Africa have been good to me. Always encouraging, even the reaction to the book is fantastic. I wasn’t sure if I was going to recover from my illness and I decided that the best time to write this book is now,” says Barker, set to return soon to coaching more soccer stars, and shaping a future that will one day bring the World Cup to Africa.
&nbsp;

CliveBarker_GL-2

The Cab Driver, Coach And The Cup

It’s 7AM on July 17, a day before Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday, and Corlett Drive, the road leading to The Wanderers Cricket Stadium in Johannesburg, is a sea of cars.
At least 15,000 people are expected to pour into it today, to hear one former president speak about another. Obama on Mandela. Both names big enough to draw generations of South Africans together to the stadium – and others from abroad – on a cold week day.
“I forgot it was winter in South Africa,” began Barack Obama, instantly warming up to the audience that welcomes him with a thunderous applause.
The former US president is here for the 16th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, the biggest ever, timed aptly with the centenary celebrations of the former apartheid struggle hero.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/07/18/the-power-humour-and-anger-of-mandela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Power, Humour And Anger Of Mandela</a>
<div id="attachment_37017" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37017" class="wp-image-37017 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-02-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-02-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-02-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-02-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-02-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-02.jpg 1902w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />(From Left) Foundation Chairperson Professor Njabulo Ndebele, Graça Machel, President Cyril Ramaphosa, Former US President Barack Obama and Dr Patrice Motsepe. Photo By Gypseenia Lion.</div>
The theme? ‘Renewing the Mandela Legacy and Promoting Active Citizenship in a Changing World’, focusing on creating conditions for bridging divides, working across ideological lines, and resisting oppression and inequality.
“The presence of each and every one here is living proof that the legacy and spirit of Nelson Mandela is alive,” says FORBES billionaire Patrice Motsepe, also founder and CEO of the Motsepe Foundation behind the event, before Obama’s address.
In the audience are recognizable faces, everyone from politicians past and present to billionaire businessmen (Mandela’s long-time friend Richard Branson), movie stars (Charlize Theron), kings and traditional leaders.
The stadium fully represents Mandela’s Rainbow Nation.
<div id="attachment_37016" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37016" class="wp-image-37016 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-05-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="494" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-05-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-05-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-05-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-05-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-05.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />The Soweto Gospel Choir. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>
“I am here to see Obama, hopefully I will get a good shot of him. Most importantly, I am here to find out what he has in store for us [South Africa], what he thinks about how we are doing outside the country and his views on how we can take our country forward,” says excited guest Asanda Mokoena.
A few hundred metres from the pitch is a car park for attendees like Mokoena. It is a hive of activity. Vehicles, big and small, scramble about for parking space.
Queues form at the gates hours before.
Inside the stadium, loud laughter and banter. Precious photos reminiscing Mandela and recording Obama. “Yes we can, yes we can, yes we can,” the crowd chants.
<div id="attachment_37011" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37011" class="size-medium wp-image-37011" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-04-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-04-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-04-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-04-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-04-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-04.jpg 1985w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Attendees shield their faces from the afternoon sun. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla</div>
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who calls Obama to the podium, also receives a standing ovation, the crowds singing and cheering for him.
Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane is in the audience.
“We are living in a global society in which the values of freedom are under threat and it is important that people who believe in individual rights, the market-based economy, the freedoms of people, must stand together and advance the values of Nelson Mandela. So I would hope that today is about advancing the value of non-racialism, and reconcile society, then ultimately, a global world on those values can be established,” says Maimane, walking to the VIP area before the event.
Mandela shone brightly. Says Graça Machel, the former president’s widow, on stage, “these occasions make him very happy”, also drawing parallels between Mandela and Obama, portraying them as “symbols of victory over adversity”.
“It should make us hopeful..,” says Obama in his address. “Ultimately, Mandela came to signify something more&#8230;He came to embody the universal aspirations of people all around the world.
“We have to start by admitting that whatever laws may have existed on the books, whatever wonderful pronouncements existed in constitutions, whatever nice words were spoken these last decades at international conferences or in the halls of the United Nations, the previous structures of power and privilege and injustice and exploitation never completely went away…
“I believe in a vision of equality and justice and freedom and multi-racial democracy built on the premise that all people are created equal and they&#8217;re endowed by our creator certain inalienable rights. And I believe that a world governed by such principles is possible and that it can achieve more peace and more cooperation and pursuit of a common good,&#8221; says Obama, also touching on the politics of fear and the recent chaos in the world.
As the winter sun comes down, and at the end of Obama’s impassioned 90-minute address, the audience is suitably invigorated.
South African actor and presenter, Thapelo Mokoena, says this is a much-needed reminder of the values and sacrifice of Mandela.
<div id="attachment_37012" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37012" class="wp-image-37012 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-01-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-01-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-01-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-01-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-01-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obama-lecture-01.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Thapelo Mokoena, Actor. Photo by Gypseenia Lion.</div>
<blockquote>“Just like art has a way of reminding us who we are and where we are from, this contributes to that. As an artist, this means the entire world and I can tell the story for many years to come,” he says.</blockquote>
“I just feel it is very opportune for us as South Africans to reflect on the kind of leadership that we want to bring into our own lives,” says Tinashe Zigomo, another audience member.
As the crowds leave, they take with them revitalized reflections on Mandela and lessons from Obama.
&#8211; By Ancillar Mangena and Gypseenia Lion

Obama-lecture-03

Obama The Orator; The Mandela Lecture

It is a century since Nelson Mandela came kicking and screaming into a world that he would change.
In one hundred years, his name has been spoken with pride from the paddy fields of Vietnam, through the savannahs of Africa to the smoky steak houses of New York. His legacy appears more contested with every passing year.
I was fortunate to have a front row seat in the Mandela years and saw the power, humour and anger of the man. I used to feel 10 feet tall at press conferences when he used to greet my questions with: “Mr Bishop, how are you?” Once I was walking to a TV interview with him, at an African Union summit in Harare, the day after I had ruptured my knee playing football, he noticed I was hobbling far behind – something he was not used to. He turned and inquired of the cause of my pain.
“May I suggest you take up boxing, it’s safer!” says the old man with that million dollar smile. I shall take the warmth of that smile to my grave.
Make it clear, I am no Mandela worshipper. He was no saint and certainly didn’t want to be one: he could be angry and petulant with the best of them; his past was chequered by domestic troubles; a man of the people, yet distant from his own family, according to many close to him. A man who promoted press freedom, yet like many of the lesser politicians who followed him, wanted his picture on every page of the morning newspaper. Mandela drew the line at the sports page – he joked that he didn’t want to risk being associated with losers.
The greatest fear Mandela had was that his ideals – not his name – would be forgotten after his death. Not for Mandela the greed of rule, nor the trappings of power.
Yet it is very fashionable these days to run Mandela down as something akin to a sell-out. Those who claim, erroneously, that Mandela sold out his people. They say he didn’t stop poverty overnight nor right the wrongs of the past with the wave of his wand. They need to talk to those who were there in the negotiations for a new free South Africa.
“People say we gave up too much in negotiations yet we had nothing to start with,” Denis Goldberg, a man who faced death with Mandela at the Rivonia Trial in 1964, once told me.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/07/11/mandela-through-their-eyes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Mandela Through Their Eyes</a>
The negotiations with an entrenched elite – that held most of the cards and only grudgingly acknowledged Mandela and his comrades – were difficult to say the least. Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) could not even threaten to go back to war because the depleting arms of its military wing posed little or no threat to the state.
Even so, a deal was hammered together somehow. In the next two years, in the run-up to the 1994 elections, Mandela won his leadership spurs as he steered South Africa away from the civil war that many feared was inevitable. He flew to Durban and told bloody-thirsty faction fighters to throw their weapons into the sea and they listened. When revered freedom fighter Chris Hani was gunned down on his front drive, in 1993, many were ready to take the law into their own hands.
Mandela barged into the SABC studios in Johannesburg that night and made a broadcast to the nation to calm down and put its weapons away. He wasn’t even in Parliament then and I wonder to this day how many lives that broadcast saved with this canny display of leadership.
Then, when into power with a virtually bankrupt Treasury, Mandela steered the National Development Programme that built millions of homes and schools; electrified the homes of legions of poor people and rolled out roads to connect the nation. Yet, the money was never going to stretch far enough and millions still have no roof over their heads and too many schoolchildren attend classes under trees.
It is fashionable these days to say the majority of South Africa must rise in a civil war in which the nation will be cleansed of its past, restored of its land on the path to righteousness. It probably sounds even better after a few drinks.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/07/09/celebrating-mandela-from-where-it-all-began-soweto/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Celebrating Mandela From Where It All Began; Soweto</a>
I say this is bunkum and anyone who has ever seen or smelt a civil war will agree with me. How a vile, stinking trail of dead fathers, raped women and children, destruction and disorder, can lead a country to the light beats me. Those who scream for war have clearly never seen it.
The first time I clapped eyes on the great man, at the Harare Agricultural Show, on his first foreign visit to Zimbabwe in August 1994, he walked alone, without a security man in sight. I didn’t ask for a selfie – they didn’t exist then, anyway – I was tongue-tied. We merely smiled at each other in passing.
So when people in political circles told me that South Africa’s new president Cyril Ramaphosa didn’t care for wealth and power – he merely wanted to put his name up there with Mandela – I smiled like I did on that August day in Harare.
This does seem feasible as President Ramaphosa – a millionaire in his own right – was the man who stood next to Mandela, holding the microphone, on the town hall steps in Cape Town, on February 11 1990, during his famous address on release from 27 years in prison.
<blockquote>“I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people,” said Mandela to deafening cheers on that bright summer’s day.</blockquote>
Clearly this humility and willingness to serve rubbed off on President Ramaphosa on that fateful day in 1990. In his first 100 days, he has made manful attempts to stop the rot in South Africa by merely enforcing the rule of law. A course of action he made no secret of even before he took power on February 15.
“There are no holy cows. Anyone who is caught doing wrong things will end up behind the bars of a jail,” says Ramaphosa, with microphone in hand and humble service in mind at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
True to his word, Ramaphosa cut swathes through the corruption of the past. Former president Jacob Zuma ended up in the dock on corruption charges something that many – including me – thought they would never see in their lifetime. He removed the rookie finance minister Malusi Gigaba and replaced him with the people’s choice Nhanlha Nene who has staved off more downgrades of the economy. A clean-up of the state-owned enterprises and the institutions is underway and many who thought they were invincible six months ago have been cut down to size.
I am sure the old man, who must have been spinning in his grave over the last few years, would approve.
“Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another,” says Mandela at his inauguration at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
As we mark 100 years since his birth, it is time for cool heads and clear thinking to make sure this utopian ideal of liberty and tolerance lives on after his death. Our grandchildren will judge us harshly if we don’t.

Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk in Moria

The Power, Humour And Anger Of Mandela

<h3>Documenting Madiba</h3>
Sahm Venter, Author
<div id="attachment_36678" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36678" class="size-medium wp-image-36678" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152.jpg 1361w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Sahm Venter. Photography by Karen Mwendera</div>
<blockquote>“He saw people; he wasn’t one of those leaders who would see only famous people.”</blockquote>
South African author, Sahm Venter, spent most of her 25 years as a journalist covering the anti-apartheid struggle, before joining the Nelson Mandela Foundation as a senior researcher.
In June, with her colleague at the foundation, Vimla Naidoo, she released a book, I Remember Nelson Mandela, a collection of stories on the people who worked closely with Mandela.
“Everybody just loved him, and because he was such a decent person and because he saw people; he wasn’t one of those leaders who would see only famous people,” says Venter.
Mandela’s ability to pay attention to every single person in his presence was something Venter admired.
It was Christmas 1995, a year after South Africa gained independence with Mandela as head of state. Venter, along with five other journalists, spent Christmas day with him at the Transkei (in the southeastern region of South Africa).
“We had to meet him at like five in the morning and there were police guarding his house. He went and shook hands with every one of them and said ‘Merry Christmas’,” Venter recollects.
“When we walked through the villages for five hours, every single person and child who came out, he stopped, greeted and shook their hands. He asked for their name, asked how they are, what they are going to be when they are grow up, what class they are in at school.”
At the time, Venter quietly observed and remembers being blown away by Mandela’s humility.
A year later, at the launch of South Africa’s Constitution in Cape Town, Venter was among the few journalists who reported on the historical milestone.
“I was sitting next to this woman and I introduced myself from the SABC and she asked ‘are you Sahm Venter?’ and I said, ‘yes, why?’ And she said ‘well, the other day, Madiba called me up in front of these world leaders and introduced me to the whole crowd as you’. So he thought it was me because I had spent all this time with him,” Venter says, with a laugh.
“But that’s the kind of man he was, he valued everybody and everyone who worked with him felt that. And on top of it, he had a fantastic sense of humour,” she says.
<h3>Protecting Madiba</h3>
Conroy Herandien, Former bodyguard
<div id="attachment_36681" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36681" class="size-medium wp-image-36681" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199.jpg 1361w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Conroy Herandien. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
<blockquote>“Happy birthday Tata, come back please, urgently.”</blockquote>
Conroy Herandien was only 21 years old when he was tasked with protecting South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela. The former policeman was recruited into the presidential unit as a bodyguard after Mandela became president in 1994.
Herandien says he got to travel 22 countries with Mandela and his staff during his presidential years.
But apart from meeting with delegates and other presidents, he got to witness some of Mandela’s most intimate moments on board the aircraft.
“When everything quietens down and you board the plane, that’s when the intimate part starts. You help him take off his shoes, make him comfortable, take out his hearing aids, switch them off, that’s where the personal came in,” Herandien says.
“He had this thing about newspapers. If you give him the newspapers in the morning, please don’t touch them! Don’t open page two or anything because when he saw that the newspaper was opened, he wouldn’t want to read it anymore. He was a disciplined man and like many elders, had his own mannerisms and was also very stubborn at times especially when it came to the security part of things,” shares Herandien, with a laugh.
At times, Mandela would make his own bed even though there was staff to do it. This was the discipline instilled in him from 27 hard years in prison.
Herandien says he learned this discipline from Madiba, and attests to applying it in his everyday life. “He helped us grow where we didn’t stand back for anybody and everyday was a learning curve,” he says.
Herandien can’t help but wish Mandela was still around. As South Africa celebrates what would have been Mandela’s 100th birthday on July 18, Herandien recalls one particular experience celebrating Mandela’s birthday on one of their trips.
Shortly after midnight, the president’s plane landed at the Air Force Base Waterkloof in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital. Herandien and a colleague were one of the first to wish Mandela a happy birthday.
“No, no, thank you very much, very good, very good!” Herandien imitates Madiba’s response in his recognizable voice.
“That was him. He made everybody feel special,” Herandien says.
If he had the opportunity to wish Mandela one more time, he says these would be his words: “Happy birthday Tata, come back please, urgently.”
<h3>Impressing Madiba</h3>
Tladi Ditshego, Former international affairs coordinator
<div id="attachment_36677" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36677" class="size-medium wp-image-36677" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Tladi Ditshego. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
<blockquote>“He gave me that ability to recognize people and feel good around people and to know them deeper.”</blockquote>
During apartheid, African National Congress (ANC) member Tladi Ditshego left South Africa to live in the United States (US) on exile. He studied at Georgetown University in Washington DC in 1990. At this stage, he was the treasurer of the ANC Youth League chapter based there. After Mandela left prison, one of his missions was to visit some of the ANC members living in exile. As a result, Mandela happened to visit Ditshego’s university too.
“When I met him at that time he was obviously such a revered leader, I was shivering,” says Ditshego.
Ditshego worked closely with him during his stay in the US.
“I advised him on certain things and participated in discussions before his interviews, I added value to some of his speeches and everything else and he says ‘come and work with me in Johannesburg’,” recalls Ditshego.
He consulted with his wife, processed his exile indemnity forms and did what anyone would have done if asked personally to work for Mandela.
1992 marked the beginning of his journey working with Mandela as his international affairs coordinator and they traveled to many countries together. One of his first assignments was to Senegal for a summit.
“That was my first international assignment with him and I didn’t know his modus operandi,” says Ditshego.
After meeting, greeting and networking alongside Mandela, Ditshego was called to meet with the president once the event ended.
“He said, ‘Tladi come over here’, and he sat down and said to me, ‘who was the lady we met dressed like this?’ And I said ‘I don’t know’,” Ditchego says.
“So he looked at me and said ‘ok, after that lady, there was another gentlemen’&#8230; And he would describe the way he was dressed. And I said, ‘but I don’t know the guy’, and he went on for the third and ‘I said I don’t know’ again.”
Ditshego was disappointed at not being able to identify any of the people Mandela asked him about. “He might have felt that I was very stupid, you know, and I couldn’t sleep that night,” he says.
The next day Mandela asked him the same type of questions after they met more people at an event. This time, Ditshego went prepared. He carried a notebook and wrote down every detail about each person Mandela interacted with.
Ditshego narrates the conversation he had with Mandela afterwards.
“Tladi, how was the day?”
‘Tata, I think it went on very well.’
“Remember we met a lady dressed like this…”
“Oh, ‘that’s Penelope from…’ ”
Ditshego had everything written down and had an answer for every person Mandela asked him about.
When they returned to South Africa, Mandela even told Ditshego’s boss, at the time Thabo Mbeki.
“Ey, Tladi is so smart, he knows everybody in the world and at that conference, he knew everybody,” Mandela said to Mbeki.
From then on, Ditshego’s confidence was restored. Not only did he learn to pay attention to detail whilst working with Mandela, but it is what he now applies in his day-to-day life.
“He gave me that ability to recognize people and feel good around people and to know them deeper, rather than to just say ‘hi, how are you?’” says Ditshego, who is now an entrepreneur and CEO at J&amp;J Group in Johannesburg.
<h3>Idolizing Madiba</h3>
Vimla Naidoo, Former staff
<div id="attachment_36679" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36679" class="size-medium wp-image-36679" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174.jpg 1361w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Vimla Naidoo. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
<blockquote>“I hope wherever Madiba is, he just feels the love, not just from his staff or family, but just South Africa and the world.”</blockquote>
It was in September 1995 that Vimla Naidoo first started working for the presidency. She was in the protocol team and her first task was to put together a reception that Mandela was hosting for Pope John Paul II. Minsters, the cabinet and several distinguished guests were invited to the prestigious reception.
It being Naidoo’s second day on the job, she was excited and nervous working behind the scenes. The event went smoothly and it was just about to end.
Little did she know she was about to meet two of the most respected men in the world.
“Our director at the protocol, said ‘come’ and I was like ‘where are we going?’ And he said ‘we are going to join this line of people greeting Madiba and the Pope’,” recollects Naidoo.
“I was so shocked but I was elated. I mean it was my second day on the job. I thought I was going to go through a couple of months before I ever got to see Madiba!
“I walked right past the Pope with my hand stretched out to greet Madiba, and he looked at me and he laughed and said, ‘aren’t you going to greet the Pope’? And I thought ‘oh my gosh, I’m going to be fired on my second day at work’. So I did a double take, went back, shook the Pope’s hand, I think, and he said something like ‘bless you, child’.”
A shy Naidoo walked back to Mandela, who then asked her, “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?’, trying the gauge his new staff member’s age.
“So he just kind of made me feel more comfortable and at ease. And I thought I royally screwed up. And so that always sticks with me,” says Naidoo, never able to forget that first encounter with him. After staying on in the presidency for a few years, it was normal meeting the iconic president most days.
“I think just to let him know how much we love him and how he will always be a part of our hearts…” Naidoo says, getting emotional. We pause the interview for a bit.
“It’s such an emotional experience and thinking about Madiba and talking about him I mean, especially during this time of the year…And thinking about other birthdays that we’ve shared, you know, and we’ve all been running around like worker bees trying to make sure that he has a great time,” she continues.
“I hope wherever Madiba is, he just feels the love, not just from his staff or family, but just South Africa and the world.”
<h3>Healing Madiba </h3>
Jay Naidoo, Former minister of reconstruction and development
<div id="attachment_36680" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36680" class="size-medium wp-image-36680" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197.jpg 1361w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Jay Naidoo. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
<blockquote>“His remarkable magic of connecting with children was in fact one of the greatest triumphs that he could teach us.”</blockquote>
At an event commemorating Nelson Mandela, Jay Naidoo, a political and social activist and founding general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), shares one of the funniest moments involving Mandela and Naidoo’s then two-year-old son Kami.
In 1994, when South Africa had just gained independence, Naidoo was appointed minister of reconstruction and development in Mandela’s cabinet.
Mandela was addressing the people during the launch of a campaign on how the leadership and communities could work together.
Naidoo attended the launch with his wife Lucie Page and Kami.
“Madiba is making the main speech. He is opening, and Kami decided that when Madiba is making his speech, he is going to go there and stand in front of everybody and tug Madiba’s trousers’,” Naidoo narrates.
Lucie and Naidoo looked at each other wondering which parent would pick up Kami tugging the president’s pants, whilst he was speaking.
“So I said ‘ok I will volunteer’. The first time I go and I take him and I put him on my lap. But no, he is not content with that,” Naidoo says.
Oblivious to the important speech Mandela was delivering, the little boy returned to him. This time, Lucie fetched Kami.
But her efforts were unsuccessful.
Kami went after Mandela a third time.
But this time, Mandela responded.
“He takes him in and puts him on the podium and continues the speech. Kami didn’t say a word.” Naidoo laughs.
“So Madiba, bless his soul, he loved children. There was a child inside of him that he missed for those 27 years. That is his greatest loss; the laughter of children, the touch of children, the love and innocence and the love of children. So his remarkable magic of connecting with children was in fact one of the greatest triumphs that he could teach us. He was a great teacher,” says Naidoo, fondly remembering Madiba.
Naidoo wished that Mandela’s love for children would transcend through society. However, the post-apartheid transition wasn’t easy especially for the politicians who had the task of rebuilding the country.
“Madiba once had a conversation with me when he talked about the reconstruction and development program of the soul and I said to him, ‘Madiba, I know we need to heal but they aren’t measuring us on healing, they are measuring us on how many houses, jobs and schools we are building’.”
Only now does Naidoo realize that “it was a stupid mistake, because we didn’t do the work of healing, first within ourselves, because we all carry this wound”.
This was something he believes Mandela was trying to teach them all.
Naidoo ends by saying: “If only we could just learn that and live with love and compassion and generosity, the triumph of what Madiba represented over fear and prejudice and racism….”

A group of American and South African students, aged from 11 to 19, met with Nelson Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, on 2 June 2009. This is part of a series of activities ahead of Mandela Day on 18 July.

Mandela Through Their Eyes

“You must keep going, don’t let go,” replies the teacher.
A moment across a table as an African trailblazer in business uses his lessons in life to help shape a young entrepreneur.
The teacher is 86-year-old Richard Maponya; his pupil is 32-year-old Monalisa Sam. They grew up worlds apart with the same aim.
Maponya, a trained teacher who never taught, joined a company in the 1950s to sell clothing to miners. This job spurred him on to become an entrepreneur.
For more than 50 years, Maponya did everything. He sold clothes door-to-door, meat to butchers, BMWs to the rich and property to the wise. Most came in oppressive apartheid days when Maponya was shunned at every turn.
Maponya Mall is his holy grail. It took Maponya $62.8 million, 28 years and a string of lawsuits to carve out the first shopping mall in the bustling Soweto.
“It was like a war, I don’t know how many times I had been turned down by the apartheid government,” Maponya says.
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Former president Nelson Mandela opened the mall in late 2007. In 1957, Mandela, then a young lawyer, assisted Maponya when the businessman was trying to obtain a license to open a retail clothing store.
By contrast, Sam is the daughter of a former headmaster, who had it easier. Her father, Gideon Sam, is now the South African Sports Confederations and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) president. Sam was part of the first generation of black children to enrol in formerly whites only schools. She has a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting degree from the University of Cape Town and was employed by Old Mutual Properties.
Their paths crossed when Sam was a general manager for Maponya Mall Property Trust in 2007. A friendship was forged in the two years she worked there, before she left to co-found Tungwa Retail Holdings in 2011, a company run by black women.
“When we interviewed Monalisa for the job, there were many others but she was the star. We grabbed her with both hands. And we were not disappointed by our decision. She’s very talented and confident. I know she will go very far,” says Maponya.
To this day, Maponya, albeit frail, hasn’t lost his hunger for business, nor his dress sense that made him a snappy salesman a lifetime ago.
The mentor and protégé meet at Maponya’s house in Hyde Park to catch up and assess how the young entrepreneur is faring.
“The business is coming on well, Papa, but as any entrepreneurial project it takes time with a lot of challenges. But we are grounded on what we want to do. We will keep going,” Sam tells Maponya.
Maponya surprises his protégé with talk of a new business.
“I have been very busy with a little challenge. I have ventured into the chicken industry. It has been monopolized by Afrikaaners and I just felt I had to have a crack at it and see if I can make a difference and see if I can encourage some of the black folks to join in. It is not an easy industry,” he says.
“If you want to succeed in this industry you must own everything. Don’t depend on other people,” Maponya advises his student.
The talk veers towards the government’s black economic empowerment (BEE) policy aimed at wealth redistribution. They both feel it has failed.
Maponya criticizes the BEE policy and tender system which the government uses to give contracts to the public.
“They came up with something they themselves cannot control. The white men saw opportunity in the BEE. It has created so many white millionaires as it made it possible for them to just pick a black person and say this is my BEE partner,” says Maponya.
“As the black partner you never get access to finances, you don’t know what’s going on with money, you are not empowered, you are just a token,” Sam interjects.
They agree BEE has failed to spread wealth. It is benefiting the few with political connections.
“The other thing it does Papa, it encourages a sense of entitlement among black people. There’s this idea you don’t have to work, you don’t have to understand anything. If you are just there as a black person, you are going to get something,” adds Sam.
Sam says the deals are out of most people’s reach.
“It has done a lot of harm, it has killed the youth initiatives,” says Maponya.
“Tendering is the worst thing that has ever been created. It has become a monster that has corrupted people from right at the top of government to the bottom of the ladder,” says Maponya.
“The idea is that you will never get a tender if you have not done something unscrupulous. Some say by the time it comes out in the papers it is too late. Newspaper advertisement is just a formality to say we are transparent,” says Sam.
Maponya says the government must scrap the tendering policy.
“It hurts me seeing the country becoming the most corrupt nation in the continent,” says Maponya.
The National Empowerment Fund (NEF), the government funding agent, argues that it is doing its job with distinction and merit.
“The relevance of the National Empowerment Fund is far beyond question. There’s no other (funding) entity that does what we do, no bank that does it. NEF is run with absolute integrity,” says Moemise Motsepe, the marketing and communications manager of NEF.
On average the NEF receives more than 300 applications a month. Those that are not successful are considered for a business mentorship program that runs over six months, says Motsepe.
“To date the National Empowerment Fund has funded over 500 black businesses which have created over 44,000 jobs. Over 20% of the beneficiaries are women,” he adds.
Despite these problems, Sam is far from discouraged.
“If you listened to Papa’s story when he started, the times were different but the business principles are the same of saying take the opportunity, understand where the gap is and how you service that gap,” she says.
“For many years, Papa nurtured his dream of building and owning a world-class shopping center in Soweto. In my time at Maponya, I learnt so much from him. But the most important thing he has taught me is humility and patience.”
It is evident in the conversation that the duo’s problems are different but the suffering is the same.
Like his clan totem elephant, which is the emblem on his business and tie, Maponya remains a heavyweight in business who is far from ready to give up his title.

It Hurts Seeing My Country Becoming The Most Corrupt Nation

Until he was 14 years old Jabu Mofomo had no idea how important his neighbor was. To Mofomo, the man next door merely spent hours writing on his porch and would jump the fence to gather up his son Magkatho after a day’s play. It was only when he jumped the fence in desperation one night that it dawned—his neighbor was Nelson Mandela.
Every day, Mandela would arrive home in his 1952 Morris. It was the talk of the street as he was the only one to own a car. He was always immaculately dressed, in an English suit and waistcoat. Mofomo would wave to Mandela from his home next door on Vilakazi Street, Soweto. Mandela always took time to greet his neighbors, he says.
Madiba, as Mandela is known by his clan name, also took time to organize the children in his street into a football club.
“He called us to his house, there were about sixty of us. We were able to squeeze into his place. He told us that he wanted to start a football club. To suggest names for a football club, we brought about 60 names. He wanted everyone to contribute. After an hour, he came out and said ‘Guys, I don’t like your names, you’re too Eurocentric. I would like football to have a different name.’ Mandela suggested the name of a wise Xhosa chief, Mochochonono, we all laughed. Any club that was named with an African name, at that time, would have been very strange,” he says.
But troubled political times overtook football.
“He promised to come back after two weeks. But that was the beginning of the end of us seeing Mandela. He was already in Libya. Things had intensified.”
In 1960, South African police gunned down 69 people in what was to become known as the Sharpeville Massacre. Mandela stood outside Mofomo’s house burning his passbook in protest against the deaths.
Mofomo says police raids increased, from this day, at the Mandela home.
“The police didn’t suspect anything about us. Even though, we lived right next door. I still recall some of the inspections at Mandela’s house, of what was happening around us, but I was too young to understand what was going on,” says Mofomo.
One night the raids were too close for comfort. Mandela jumped the fence with an armful of books telling Mofomo’s mother to hide them. They hid them in their house for two years and then, in fear, buried them in 1962.
For more than half a century, secret political documents remain buried in Vilakazi Street. In that time, Mofomo married and South Africa became a democracy. When the time came to dig up the books, no one could remember where they had been buried.
The last time anyone saw the books; they were covered in plastic, thrown into a sack and buried in the ground, so there is a chance that they are still intact. Mofomo says his mother couldn’t read and he was too young, so they never knew what was written in them.
The man who used to wash Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s car now makes a living out of words. Inspired by his illustrious neighbor, he worked as an investigative journalist for six years. Mofomo says he joined the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, where he helped smuggle money to underground political organizations, especially the African National Congress.
In the late 1980s, Mofomo suffered police scrutiny; he went underground and worked for Liberty Life, a wealth management group, pushing paper.
“At the time, I was a prominent journalist. Things were not good then. I was doing a lot of investigative journalism stories about households that had been taken over by superintendents; evictions under the apartheid laws. I was exposing a lot of those kinds of things. You are either under surveillance, or else you were detained. But I was never detained,” he says.
These days, Mofomo enjoys his retirement supporting Soweto football giants Orlando Pirates and the Stormers, a Cape Town rugby team. Along with discarding the name Charlie, which he was given in apartheid days, he still visits the old house on Vilakazi Street number 8067/4, where his grandchildren live. It’s the only street to be home to two Nobel Peace Winners: Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The house looks very different from the days of his childhood, he says. It was rebuilt after a gas explosion rocked its foundations two years ago.  To this day, half a century later the books have yet to surface; most likely, he says, they’re under at least two inches of cement. A piece of African history that may be lost, but not forgotten.

Tag: Mandela

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