SOUTH AFRICA:Despite recent ignominies, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela still fascinates, writes Joe Humphreysin Johannesburg
Ostracised by many of her struggle comrades, seemingly betrayed by some of her family, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela cuts a lonely figure these days.
The woman once dubbed "mother of the nation" has, since the end of apartheid, been expelled from government office and convicted of fraud.
Earlier this year, she suffered the ignominy of losing 4 million rand (€410,000) worth of jewellery in a break-in at her fortress-like home in Soweto. Adding insult to injury, five of her relatives have been charged over the theft.
And now, in the latest blow to morale, Canada has refused her entry into the country to see an opera commemorating her life.
The Passion of Winnie was due to have been launched in Toronto last week by the 72-year-old former freedom fighter, but she was denied a visa to travel because of her criminal convictions. The show went ahead without the guest of honour in what proved to be a lacklustre gala event. Worse still, the opera was panned by local critics.
However, the fact that an established production company took the trouble of making the opera - which is being broken into two feature-length shows - just goes to prove how Madikizela-Mandela still fascinates.
As the wife of the imprisoned struggle icon Nelson Mandela, and a prominent activist in her own right, she was for many years one of the people most synonymous with the anti-apartheid movement.
She was arrested, beaten and jailed on countless occasions, and in 1977 was exiled from Johannesburg. Her new home was bombed by political opponents but she continued to fight, and rallied thousands of youths to her cause in Soweto.
It was there the "Mandela United Football Club" became an informal policing mechanism, brutalising alleged spies for the government - most famously by "necklacing" victims with burning rubber tyres.
Madikizela-Mandela openly endorsed such tactics, famously declaring in a speech outside Johannesburg in 1985: "With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country." In the Passion of Winnie (Part 1), the speech is reworked to form a climactic final aria.
The lyrics run:
"For what I'm about to do
Oh Africa, my Africa
I know I will be demonised
And hated in my day
But . . . I have thought this through
Rise up and take a stand
All our husbands, sons and daughters
Are now rotting in their jails
By the rubber tire necklace
By the burning petrol necklace
With a box of common matches
We will liberate this land . . ."
The curtain falls before the kidnapping and murder of Stompie Moeketsi, a 14-year-old alleged informer. His death and Madikizela-Mandela's conviction in 1991 in relation to it are to be dealt with in the opera's yet unwritten part 2.
The opera's South African-born composer, Bongani Ndodana-Breen, said he was "perplexed" at Canada's decision to refuse Madikizela-Mandela entry to the country, especially as she had travelled as recently as last month to the United States, where she picked up an award for her work in helping to combat HIV/Aids in South Africa.
Despite some bad reviews, the producers are hoping to bring the opera to South Africa. As for the outspoken former firebrand, a comeback of some description cannot be ruled out.
Although President Thabo Mbeki, and politicians loyal to him, have washed their hands of Madikizela-Mandela, she continues to exert considerable influence over the women's league of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). She recruited presidential hopeful Tokyo Sexwale to the ANC in the early 1970s, and could yet have a say in the outcome of the race to succeed Mbeki.
As political commentator William Mervin Gumede wrote: "For all her faults, Madikizela-Mandela has an uncanny and enduring appeal among the poor and downtrodden, and [ in relation to the leadership race] . . . she could throw the best-laid plans into total disarray, as she has done before."