In 2003, she was found guilty on 43 counts of fraud and
25 counts of theft and sentenced to five years in prison,
but again, the appeal court overturned the conviction
of theft but upheld the one on fraud and she received
a three-years and six-month suspended sentence.
I am again reminded of her character and
intellect, this time tinged with a hint of bitterness,
when she accuses Madiba 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.
According to UK newspaper report, she
told Nadira Naipaul, the wife of novelist V S Naipaul:
"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?
This angry woman obviously does not have
the capacity to forgive and move forward.
The one thing that she said in the interview
that rings true is ‘Mandela is now like a corporate
foundation. He is wheeled out globally to collect the
money.’
But I don’t think it is fair to
judge Madiba on that, and Winnie puts things into perspective
when she says ‘This name Mandela is an albatross
around the necks of my family.’
You see, Winnie is furious that she is
not the one ‘wheeling him out globally to collect
the money.’
