FreeSouls: 1st ANNUAL TEMBISA MUSIC FESTIVAL 29 MARCH 2014

FreeSouls: 1st ANNUAL TEMBISA MUSIC FESTIVAL 29 MARCH 2014: 1st ANNUAL TEMBISA MUSIC FESTIVAL MC THANDO THABETHE (YFM & CLUB 808 E TV) SKHUMBA BIG BENGER (VOT) ON STAGE *THE SOIL *PROFESSO...

1st ANNUAL TEMBISA MUSIC FESTIVAL 29 MARCH 2014

1st ANNUAL TEMBISA MUSIC FESTIVAL MC THANDO THABETHE (YFM & CLUB 808 E TV) SKHUMBA BIG BENGER (VOT) ON STAGE *THE SOIL *PROFESSOR *KABELO BOUGA LUV *BIG NUZ *KHULI CHANA *CASSPER NYOVEST *IFANI *THANDI DRAAI *JAZZMELOZ *MICKY M *BOOK OF LIFE OUR DJS *HEAVY K *DA CAPO *OSCAR MBO *CLOCK *WHISKY *KHATHU DA ROCKA *GROOVE CANDI *ABYSS SOUND *HLATHI BABY *DJ BHAZE *MAJOR LEAGUE DJZ *THABANG *CRY GP *MIXXY *TEBU *SENZO *SHYNE *KHOMZA *SLEAZY P *MTSHEPANA BIG DAWG *SMALL 12" *REFRESHING *COPASETIKSOLE *DEEP SENTIMENTS *THABO FONK SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014 MORITING PARK TEMBISA #NORMAL R100 1st 1000 & R150 After R200 @The Gate / Coolers Allowed / No under 18 #VIP R200 1st 250 & 300 after - R400 @The Gate Tickets avaliable #TICKETS OUTLET 1.PURPLE PRESS _ DIFATENG SECTION TEMBISA 2.WHITE HOUSE _ TEMONG SECTING TEMBISA 3.CAPRIVI JAZZ CAFE _ SEOTLOANA SECTION 4.MOJELO'S PLACE _ IVORY PARK 5.LAS VEGAS _ TSWELOPELE 6.ZNIKO LOUNGE _ TEMBISA 7.PAT's POOL HOUSE _ BIRCH ACRES 8.BOISANTHA _ MORITING SECTION TEMBISA 9.THE DAWN PUB _ ESIPHETHWENI SECTION TEMBISA 10. LIQOUR CITY STORE _ THEMBI SHOPPING CENTRE 11. JOE's BUTCHER _ ALEXANDRA TEMBISA OUR KASI!!!!! #2014 #TMF #PLUG&PLAY #MASSIVE #TREND #FUTURE #NEXT BIG THING #ENTERTAINMENT & FUN

FreeSouls: How large should the space be?

FreeSouls: How large should the space be?: How large should the space be? I have to understand that you won’t be able to spend some time with me, Because you are busy, because ...

How large should the space be?

How large should the space be?

I have to understand that you won’t be able to spend some time with me,

Because you are busy, because you are tired, because of some emergency,

Because you have other plans, because you just don’t want to.

I have to understand that you have your own life

But how large apart should we be?

Should I be reading between the lines of what you want?

Okay, is this about you?

Do I have a say in this space issue?

Am I crowding your space?

Can I make demands as well without sounding controlling?

Can I assume that you want to spend as much time with me?

Of cause without appearing as if I’m obsessed?

Tell me how often should I be missing you?

Tell me how often should I be talking to you?

Tell me how often should I be yearning for you?

Tell me how often should I be spending time with you?

How large should the space between us be?

Again I ask, is this about you?

Shouldn’t this be about us?

Can we both define the space?

Because right now I don’t know what I’m doing wrong/right

FreeSouls: Open letter to Minister Fikile Mbalula

FreeSouls: Open letter to Minister Fikile Mbalula: An Open Letter has emerged addressed to Fikile Mbalula after Bafana Bafana's exit from the Africa Nations Championship from  Matt Hami...

FreeSouls: UKZN Produces its Youngest Ever Medical Doctor

FreeSouls: UKZN Produces its Youngest Ever Medical Doctor: Dr Sandile Kubheka Dr Sandile Kubheka recently completed his MBChB degree at the College of Health Sciences at the age of 20, making ...

FreeSouls: Facebook will lose 80% of users by 2017, say Princ...

FreeSouls: Facebook will lose 80% of users by 2017, say Princ...:   Facebook has spread like an infectious disease but we are slowly becoming immune to its attractions, and the platform will be largely ab...

FreeSouls: Mandela School of Science & Technology opens in So...

FreeSouls: Mandela School of Science & Technology opens in So...: From left to right: Mandla Mandela, Chief of Mvezo and Head of the Royal House of Mandela, Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South ...

FreeSouls: Grammy Awards 2014: Complete List of Winners

FreeSouls: Grammy Awards 2014: Complete List of Winners: Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage Beyonce and a liquor-sipping Jay Z looked upon one another in the front row at the Staples Center for the...

FreeSouls: Beyonce and Jay-Z’s ‘Drunken Love’ Grammy opener

FreeSouls: Beyonce and Jay-Z’s ‘Drunken Love’ Grammy opener: For the opening performance of the 2014 Grammy Awards, Beyoncé and Jay Z tag teamed on “Drunk in Love.” The two opened with a steamy pe...

FreeSouls: Ladysmith Black Mambazo wins 4th Grammy

FreeSouls: Ladysmith Black Mambazo wins 4th Grammy: South African traditional choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo have won their fourth  Grammy  Award. The music group shared the award with...

FreeSouls: Queen Latifah, Madonna Marry Gay Couples at the Gr...

FreeSouls: Queen Latifah, Madonna Marry Gay Couples at the Gr...: The show-stopping moment of the 56th annual Grammy Awards was the live nuptials of 33 couples, a mix of gay and straight, who tied the k...

FreeSouls: BREAKING NEWS : Ramphele will stand as DA presiden...

FreeSouls: BREAKING NEWS : Ramphele will stand as DA presiden...: Source:  Nielen de Klerk via Twitter The full story to follow, what is your view on this completely unexpected development?

FreeSouls: Homophobia Is a Real Fear … but of What, Exactly?

FreeSouls: Homophobia Is a Real Fear … but of What, Exactly?: Still from Steve Grand's " All-American Boy ." To be a homophobe in 2014 is, increasingly, to find oneself on the fast tr...

FreeSouls: “They Are Still Our Slaves’ – A White Man’s Perspe...

FreeSouls: “They Are Still Our Slaves’ – A White Man’s Perspe...: A heavy piece which a Caucasian wrote... “They Are Still Our Slaves” We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the ...

FreeSouls: Helen Zille: Mamphela Ramphele has reneged on our ...

FreeSouls: Helen Zille: Mamphela Ramphele has reneged on our ...: In a statement, the DA leader says Agang SA leader has demonstrated that she can't be trusted to see a project through to its conclusi...

FreeSouls: Revealed: Why Nelson Mandela never forgave ex-wife...

FreeSouls: Revealed: Why Nelson Mandela never forgave ex-wife...: Nelson Mandela was laid to rest on 15th Dec 2013. John   Carlin in his new book ‘Knowing Mandela,’ reveals why he never forgave the f...

FreeSouls: Big Brother Mzansi

FreeSouls: Big Brother Mzansi: Live Sunday Show: On a night that saw hugely popular South African super-group Micasa rock the BIG BROTHER MZANSI SECRETS stage, perf...

FreeSouls: ‘Love children’ want Mandela estate recognition

FreeSouls: ‘Love children’ want Mandela estate recognition: Nelson Mandela. Picture: Khaya Ngwenya/City Press Two people apparently fathered by Nelson Mandela have sought to be acknowledged by ...

FreeSouls: Mandela: Is there another will?

FreeSouls: Mandela: Is there another will?: It was a tense family that gathered at the Nelson Mandela Foundation on Monday, summoned for the reading of the late statesman’s will...

FreeSouls: Julius Malema provisionally sequestrated

FreeSouls: Julius Malema provisionally sequestrated: EFF leader Julius Malema. Picture: Denvor de Wee/City Press Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has been provisional...

FreeSouls: Did You Know That Beyonce And President Obama Migh...

FreeSouls: Did You Know That Beyonce And President Obama Migh...: A very bizarre rumor is circulating the web and, supposedly, would be featured in a number of newspapers very soon. President Obama is said...

FreeSouls: The end has begun…

FreeSouls: The end has begun…: How painful can this feeling be? How can something so wonderful end so painfully? My heart weeps; my heart is so sour…. But I guess...

FreeSouls: Why women prefer taller men

FreeSouls: Why women prefer taller men: A new study confirms a truism in the dating world: when it comes to love, size -- or more specifically height -- matters. This is par...

FreeSouls: Yes, I accept it…

FreeSouls: Yes, I accept it…: Yes, I accept it… I accept the fact that we won’t always be happy, I accept the fact that maybe one day you will hurt me, Maybe not i...

Yes, I accept it…

Yes, I accept it…

I accept the fact that we won’t always be happy,

I accept the fact that maybe one day you will hurt me,

Maybe not intentionally but the feeling of hurt will be the same,

I accept that people will try to come between us,

I accept that people will talk badly about me to you,

I accept that some of my friends have talked bad about you to me,

I accept that there might be truth to whatever they may say,

I accept that I may not end up with you till eternity,

I accept that….

I know you may be think what am I on about,

I know you may be be wondering if you aren’t making me happy,

I know you may be thinking that you are not doing enough,

I accept that,

Accept the fact that I’m here,

Accept the fact that after what we’ve been through we are still together,

Accept the fact that there is a reason we are still standing strong,

Accept the fact that this might not last,

Accept the fact that “at times” you may not want me around,

Accept the fact that “at times” I may not want you around,

Accept that I’m fighting for this till the end each and every day,

Accept the fact that I may also want to see your effort in making this last,

I have accepted that I love you…

I have accepted that I’m learning something out of this relationship,

I have accepted the hurdles and challenges,

I have accepted the fact that we both not perfect,

I have accepted the fact that our relationship is not perfect,

I don’t want it to be perfect, if I thought that for a second, then I wouldn’t know us…

Yes I accept it all.

Why women prefer taller men

A new study confirms a truism in the dating world: when it comes to love, size -- or more specifically height -- matters.

This is particularly true for women, who expressed a preference for taller men as a matter of protection and femininity in a new study published jointly out of Rice University and the University of North Texas.

Researchers conducted their study in two parts. For the first experiment, they looked at the dating preferences of men and women using data from 925 personal dating ads posted Yahoo!.

Of the 455 men, the average age was 36 and the average height 5 feet 8 inches (177 cm).

The sample of 470 women averaged a height of 5 feet 4 inches (165 cm) and age 35.

Asking open-ended questions in an online survey to ascertain height preferences, researchers concluded that 14 percent of men expressed a desire to date exclusively shorter women.

But when it came to women, nearly half or 49 percent of females said they only wanted to date men who were taller than themselves.

“As the girl, I like to feel delicate and secure at the same time. Something just feels weird in thinking about looking 'down' into my man's eyes," said one female participant.

"There is also something to be said about being able to wear shoes with high heels and still being shorter. I also want to be able to hug him with my arms reaching up and around his neck."

The second part of the study involved 54 men and 131 women recruited from a US university whose answers to an online survey corroborated the previous findings, with more than half (55 percent of females) expressing a preference for taller men, and 37 percent of men preferring shorter women.

For men, a preference for shorter women comes from the mechanics of physical intimacy.

"I like it when the body of your partner fits yours," said one man. "It also makes it easier to kiss, hold hands and do other activities with your partner."

The findings were published in the Journal of Family Issues.

According to science, tall men with low voices have hit the biological jackpot, as another study out of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario found that women found low-pitched male voices sexy, but also less trustworthy.

Source: SowatanLive

The end has begun…

How painful can this feeling be?

How can something so wonderful end so painfully?

My heart weeps; my heart is so sour….

But I guess that’s how all good things come to an end…

I have reached the end of the road,

This is when I bid farewell,

Farewell to a lot of pain, disrespect, self demotion….

Farewell to a painful, yet so wonderful past…

This is when I look forward to the future with fear,

The future that looks so bleak from where I’m sitting,

The future that is so difficult to face by myself.

This is when I start to wonder how unfair life is,

This is when I start to wonder how God can allow such pain,

The end has created such anger, such hate inside of me,

I feel like I will explode, I feel like my heart has been stabbed,

My hypertension has probably reached its all time high…

How do I calm it down, breathing exercises might help….

I can’t breath properly, this is damn painful…..

The end has begun! 

Did You Know That Beyonce And President Obama Might Be Having An…

A very bizarre rumor is circulating the web and, supposedly, would be featured in a number of newspapers very soon. President Obama is said to be having an affair with none other than pop singer Beyonce. The rumor sounds quite ridiculous and has been made public by a French photographer named Pascal Rostain.

Source: Mark Wilson/Getty Images North America

The man states there is obvious distance between President Obama and his wife Michelle during their public appearances. Rostain also claims that the situation with French president Hollande was similar. He was first seen appearing very distant from his wife on TV images, then rumored to be having an affair with an actress and the rumors eventually proved true. So Rostain insinuates history might repeat itself when it comes to President Obama and Beyonce.

However, these allegations and assumptions are emerging just when the President of France happens to be visiting the White House. A supposed “scandal” featuring the US President and an attractive woman from the entertainment industry might be just a little too convenient to happen at this exact time, so there is a great chance the whole thing is orchestrated.

SOURCE: http://www.factswt.com/

Julius Malema provisionally sequestrated

EFF leader Julius Malema. Picture: Denvor de Wee/City Press

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has been provisionally sequestrated by the North Gauteng High Court.

“I am satisfied that the applicant [SA Revenue Service] has established the requirements for the grant of a provisional sequestration,” Judge Bill Prinsloo said in his judgment today.

A draft order was signed and made an order of court. Reading the order into the record, Prinsloo said: “The estate of the respondent [Malema] is placed in provisional sequestration.”

Malema and anyone else who did not want the order to be made final had until 10am on May 26 to give reasons why this should not happen.

Earlier, the application to have the sequestration case against Malema postponed was dismissed.

“I am of the view that the arrival of council for the respondent [Malema] this morning [with the application for postponement] is nothing but a delaying tactic and abuse of the system, which the court should not tolerate,” Prinsloo said in his judgment.

“The application for postponement is dismissed.”

This came after Malema’s legal team brought an application asking for the matter to be postponed because he [Malema] wanted to have an admission of liability, which he signed last year in negotiations with the SA Revenue Service (Sars), set aside.

He also wanted the sequestration case postponed until his pending criminal case was finalised.

Sars opposed the application for a postponement.

According to court documents, Malema owed R16 million plus interest after failing to submit tax returns between 2006 and 2010.

In 2010, Sars contacted Malema about his failure to submit tax returns.

It took Malema 18 months, after many attempts by Sars, to file his outstanding returns.

Malema also failed to register the Ratanang Trust for tax purposes – Sars had to do this on his behalf.

Source: City Press

Mandela: Is there another will?

It was a tense family that gathered at the Nelson Mandela Foundation on Monday, summoned for the reading of the late statesman’s will.

While Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke was reading Nelson ­Mandela’s dying wishes in the 43-page document, it was clear that some of his family had different expectations about what remained in his estate.

“Somewhere along the way, some members of this family had developed totally unrealistic expectations – quite delusional really – imagining that Madiba had vast sums of money to leave them,” said an official who was present at the reading.

But there was only R46 million. Mandela’s will is strenuously even-handed. His daughters Makaziwe, Zenani and Zindzi received R3 million each, as did his wife Graça Machel’s two biological children, Josina and Malengane.

Mandela’s four grandsons Mandla, Ndaba, Mbuso and Andile, offspring of his late son Makgatho, also received R3 million each, the rationale being that because their father was no longer alive, they needed special provision. The rest of the grandchildren each received R100 000 – as did Graca Machel’s six stepchildren.

However, Makaziwe, Zindzi and Zenani each received loans of R3 million while their father was still alive and, because their inheritance cancels that debt, they won’t get any more money. This has not gone down well. Zindzi was reportedly in tears after the reading, and Makaziwe was stony-faced.

Another insider at the reading said: “You can imagine this will was not received with much jubilation – the family was expecting a lot more money. A lot more. They won’t be happy that of the little money that was left, so much went to his stepchildren.”

Meanwhile, City Press has reliably learnt that questions have been raised about the validity of Mandela’s will, which could mean it will be challenged in court. The problem is that the two codicils, or amendments, refer to another will that was executed by Mandela on October 12 2004.

But the copy of the will City Press obtained from the Master of the High Court’s office in Johannesburg bears a different date. The final typed paragraph refers instead to a date in August 2004, the day of which has not been filled in.

Arnold Shapiro, an attorney specialising in wills and estates, said it was unlikely that a legal professional drafting the codicils would refer to an incorrectly dated will. “In light of this, one must assume that there is a missing will dated October 12 2004.”

Shapiro said although a date was not a requirement for a valid will, it was “worrying” that the codicil referred to an apparently incorrect date. “My professional opinion is that I don’t think the codicils should have been accepted [by the Master of the High Court].”

Johann Jacobs, national practice head of trusts and estates at law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, said the codicils raised the intriguing question of whether “there’s another will that post dates the August date”.

“If there is a document subsequent [to the August will], then that is the base document. Even if the original cannot be produced, if somebody had a copy, it would have the effect of revoking the August 2004 will.”

The executors of Mandela’s estate declined to comment on the matter. A close reading of the will reveals that the family did not follow Mandela’s funeral wishes to the letter. “It is my wish that my funeral should be interdenominational consistent with my belief that we should not prefer one religion above another, the personnel to be approved by my third wife and family,” he wrote.

However, Makaziwe, who took very firm rein on the very Christian funeral arrangements in Qunu, appears to have overlooked this instruction, although it was followed during the memorial service.

Machel is by law entitled to half of her and Mandela’s joint estate because they were married in community of property.

But the will stipulates that if she waives this right – which City Press understands she will do – her children will inherit the money Mandela has left them and she will retain her and Mandela’s shared properties in Mozambique, which were hers before they married. She will also retain her jewellery, personal bank ­accounts, car and any works of art she wants to keep from the Houghton house.

However, if she claims her 50%, some of the remaining beneficiaries could have their inheritance reduced.

SOURCE : CITY PRESS

‘Love children’ want Mandela estate recognition

Nelson Mandela. Picture: Khaya Ngwenya/City Press

Two people apparently fathered by Nelson Mandela have sought to be acknowledged by his estate, says an attorney dealing with Mandela’s will.

Family representatives of Onica Mothoa and Mpho Pule contacted Michael Katz, one of two attorneys appointed by the estate’s executors, to handle matters surrounding Mandela’s will.

Katz confirmed yesterday evening that he had been contacted, with Mothoa and Pule’s representatives claiming they were fathered by Mandela when he was still married to his first wife, Evelyn Mase.

TV programme Carte Blanche reported last night that the pair’s lawyers had approached the Master of the High Court to stop the division of funds as directed by Mandela’s will from his estate.

Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke told reporters in Johannesburg last Monday that the provisional assessment of Mandela’s estate was about R46 million.

“The amount, which excludes royalties accrued over time, is still to be verified,” Moseneke said.

The will was first written in 2004 and last amended in 2008.

Katz said the two women sought to be recognised by Mandela’s estate and did not seek any money.

Katz said he would meet the executors of Mandela’s estate to discuss the matter.

During Carte Blanche’s broadcast, Mothoa and Pule’s relatives claimed they had tried to reach Mandela in the past so that he could acknowledge he was the two women’s father. But there was no acknowledgement. He had reportedly met one of the women.

A legal spokesperson for the women’s families told Carte Blanche they were considering bringing an application for Mandela’s DNA to be tested to show if he was connected to Mothoa and Pule.

The women, originally from Hammanskraal and Bloemfontein, have featured in various news reports over the years claiming that Mandela was their father.

In the most recent report, it was claimed one of them was refused access to Mandela in his last hospitalisation in Pretoria.

The Carte Blanche report said neither woman was allowed into the funeral area when Mandela was buried in Qunu in the Eastern Cape on December 15 after his death on December 5.

They also had to watch Mandela lying in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on television.

Source: CITY PRESS

Big Brother Mzansi

Live Sunday Show:

On a night that saw hugely popular South African super-group Micasa rock the BIG BROTHER MZANSI SECRETS stage, performing their hits Jika and Turn You On, Biggie once again delivered drama and excitement to audiences who tuned in to the second live Sunday show on Mzansi Magic (DStv channel 161) as 25-year-old aspiring filmmaker Kgosi made the big move from the Chamber to the Main House.

In the process Kgosi became the 13th and newest BIG BROTHER MZANSI SECRETS Housemate to enter the game and the race for the R 1 million grand prize. His big break came after the 12 Housemates already in the house, cast their votes on Friday night [7 February] to decide which of the 6 Chambermates would be joining them.

With the results verified by the auditing firm SizweNtsalubaGobodo and finally made public, Kgosi bid a fast farewell to the remaining Chambermates before making his way onto the stage to chat with series host Lungile Radu about his good fortune where he confessed that he’s having the time of his life in the game and that in the main house, he’s going to "spread the love". He then headed into the Big Brother house to meet the Housemates themselves who were anxiously waiting to discover just who their vote was bringing to their doorstep.

With Kgosi’s status now upgraded to fully fledged Housemate, the other Chambermates soon discovered their fate when Lungile announced that this week, viewers would be voting to decide just which Chambermate would be next to enter the main house.

But once again, it was Biggie himself who was firmly in control of proceedings and he took charge at the end of the show, commanding the spotlight as he ordered the female housemates into the garden, and into a newly decorated Parlor whilst leaving the guys waiting and wondering just what was coming next.

What was to follow was the astonishing news that the SECRETS game was now well and truly on! Revealing seven secrets to the surprised girls, Biggie advised them that if they could successfully match a secret to each male housemate it related to, they would be spared automatic nomination next week! With the stakes high and the girls forced to work together, the week ahead is definitely going to be interesting…

Secret 1: I am a Britney Spears fan
Secret 2: I got caught downloading porn at work
Secret 3: I am acrophobic
Secret 4: I have a fetish for Chinese Dwarfs
Secret 5: I have never dated anyone for more than 21 days
Secret 6: I coached a provincial table tennis team
Secret 7: I used to belong to a cult

Now while the girls try out their detective skills, viewers can start voting for the Chambermate they want to see enter the House next weekend. You can vote for your favourite Chambermate in 6 different ways: by sending an SMS, on WeChat, on Mxit, via USSD, via the website or via the mobile site on your cellphone.

• To vote via SMS: SMS the keyword “Vote” followed by the name of the Chambermate to the short code number 34626. SMS's are charged at R1.50/SMS. Free minutes do not apply. Please note that you can vote 100 times by SMS per cellphone number during a valid voting period.

• To vote via WeChat: On your mobile phone, go to Wechat.com, download the app, add the bigbrothermzansi account and start voting. You can vote 100 times per cellphone number on WeChat during a valid voting period. Voting on WeChat is free.

• To vote via Mxit: Find the Big Brother app within the Mxit app store and vote! You can vote 100 times on Mxit per cellphone number during a valid vote period. Cost 25 Moola/R0.25 per vote.

• To vote via USSD: Dial *120*33033# on your cellphone and start voting. You can vote 200 times per cell-phone number via USSD. Calls are charged at R1,50 per minute.

• To vote via the website or mobisite, simply visit www.bigbrothermzansi.tv. Voting on the website and on the mobile site is free and you are allowed to vote once per hour on the website and again once per hour on the mobile site during a valid voting period.

Voting began immediately after tonight’s show and closes at 06:00am next Sunday morning [16 February].

BIG BROTHER MZANSI SECRETS is live 24/7 to DStv channels 197 and 198 though ALL live Sunday shows are exclusively on Mzansi Magic. Also on Mzansi Magic – Monday nomination shows (21:30), daily highlights shows from Tuesdays to Fridays (21:30) and weekly highlights every Saturday (17:00). Daily highlights will also be screened Monday to Fridays on Mzansi Wethu (channel 163) at 22:30 and Magic World (channel 162) at 16:30. For more info on the show and the VIP online service, log on to www.bigbrothermzansi.tv. Fans can also interact with Big Brother via Facebook: www.facebook.com/BBmzansi; Twitter @BBMzansi and WeChat - ID: bigbrothermzansi.

Revealed: Why Nelson Mandela never forgave ex-wife, Winnie

Nelson Mandela was laid to rest on 15th Dec 2013. John Carlin in his new book ‘Knowing Mandela,’ reveals why he never forgave the former wife who has featured through out the 10 day mourning period and even in the official programme.

TWO weeks before Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in February 1990 I went to see his wife, Winnie, at her home in Diepkloof Extension, the posh neighbourhood of Soweto where the handful of black people who had contrived to make a little money resided. It was known as Baverly Hills to Soweto’s other presidents.

Winnie’s home, funded by foreign benefactors, was a two-floor, three-bedroom house with a garden and a small swimming pool. The height of extravagance by black standards, it would have more or less met the aspirations of the average white, middle-class South African

Zindzi, Winnie’s slim and attractive second daughter, was 29 but looked younger in a yellow T-shirt and denim dungarees. It was 9.30 a.m. and she was in the kitchen frying eggs. She invited me in and started chatting as if we were old friends. The truth was that I had not scheduled an interview with Winnie. I had just dropped in to try my luck. But Zindzi saw nothing wrong in me giving it a shot.

Mum, she said, was still upstairs and would probably be a while. As I hovered about waiting (and, as it turned out, waiting, and waiting friends of Zindzi wandered in for coffee and a chat. Completing the South African middle-class picture, a small, wizened maid in blue overalls padded inscrutably around.

Finally, Winnie made her entrance, Taller than I had expected, very much the grande dame, she displayed neither surprise nor irritation at my presence in her home. When I said I would like to interview her, she responded with a sigh, a knowing smile and a glance at her watch. I said all I would need was half an hour. She thought a moment, shrugged her shoulders and said: “OK. But you will have to give me a little time.” She still had to put the finishing touches to her morning toilette.

The picture presented to me by mother, daughter, friends and cleaning lady was of a domesticity so stable and relaxed that, had I not been better informed, I would never have imagined the depths of trauma that lucked beneath.

Winnie had been continually persecuted by agents of the apartheid state during the 1970s and 1980s; she had borne the anguish of hearing her two small daughters screaming as the police broke into her home and carted her off to jail; she had spent more than a year in solitary confinement. Trusting that her confused and stricken children would be cared for by friends; she had been banished and placed under house arrest far away. But she was back, her circumstances altered dramatically for the better now that Mandela’s release was imminent.

One hour after her first entrance, she majestically reappeared, Cleopatra still needed her morning coffee, and motioned me to wait in her study while she withdrew into the kitchen. I had five minutes to take in the surroundings.

On a bookshelf there was a row of framed family portraits, a Christmas card and a birthday card. Only a month had passed since Christmas, but nearly four since Winnie had turned 53. I could not resist taking a closer look.

I opened the Christmas card, which was enormous, and immediately recognised Nelson Mandela’s large, spidery handwriting. “Darling, I love you. Madiba,” It said. Madiba was the tribal name by which he liked to be known to those close to him. On the birthday card he had written the same words.

If I had not known better I might have imagined the cards had been sent by an infatuated teenager. Once we began our interview. Winnie took on just such a role, playing the tremulous bride-to-be, convincing me she was in a state of nervous excitement at the prospect of rekindling her life’s great love.

Close up she had, like her husband, the charisma of the vastly self-confident, and there was a coquettish, eye-fluttering sensuality about her. It was not hard to imagine how the young woman who met Mandela one rainy evening in 1957 had struck him, as he would later confess, like a thunderbolt.

The Mandela the world saw wore a mask that disguised his private feelings, presenting himself as a fearless hero, immune to ordinary human weakness. His effectiveness as a leader hung, he believed, on keeping that public mask from cracking. Winnie offered the greatest test to his resolve. During the following years the mask cracked only twice. She was the cause both times.

The first was in May 1991. She had just been convicted at Johannesburg’s Rand Supreme Court of assault and accessory to kidnapping a 14-year-old black boy called Stomple Moeketsi, whom her driver had subsequently murdered. Winnie had been led to believe, falsely as it turned out, that the boy had been working as a spy for the apartheid state.

Winnie and Mandela walked together down the steps of the grand court building. Once again the actress, she swaggered to the street, right fist raised in triumph. It was not clear what she could possibly have been celebrating, except perhaps the perplexing straight off to jail and would remain free pending an appeal.

Mandela had a different grasp of the situation. His face was grey, his eyes were downcast.

The second and last time was nearly a year later. The setting was an evening press conference hastily summoned at the drab headquarters of the ANC. He shuffled into the room, sat down at a table and read from a piece of paper, beginning by paying tribute to his wife.

“During the two decades I spent on Robben Island she was an indispensable pillar of support and comfort… My love for her remains undiminished.” There was a general intake of breath. Then he continued: “We have mutually agreed that a separation would be the best for each of us… I part from my wife with no recriminations. I embrace her with all the love and affection I have nursed for her inside and outside prison from the moment I first met her.”

He rose to his feet. “Ladies and gentlemen. I hope you ‘ll appreciate the pain I have gone through and I now end this interview.”

He exited the room, head-bowed, amid total silence.

Mandela’s love for Winnie had been, like many great loves, a kind of madness, all the more so in his case as it was founded more on a fantasy that he had kept alive for 27 years in prison than on the brief time they had actually spent together. The demands of his political life before he was imprisoned were such that they had next to no experience of married life, as Winnie herself would confess to me that morning.

“I have never lived with Mandela,” she said. “I have never known what it was to have a close family where you sat around the table with husband and children. I have no such dear memories. When I gave birth to my children he was never there, even though he was not in jail at the time.”

It seemed that Winnie, who was 22 to his 38 when they met, had cast a spell on him. Or maybe he cast a spell on himself, needing to reconstruct those fleeting memories of her into a fantasy of tranquility where he sought refuge from the loneliness of prison life.

His letters to her from Robben Island revealed romantic, sensual side to his nature that no one but Winnie then knew. He recalled “the electric current” that “flushed” through his blood as he looked at her photograph and imagined their caresses.

The truth was that Winnie had had several lovers during Mandela’s long absence. In the months before his release, she had been having an affair with Dali Mpofu, a lawyer 30 years her junior and a member of her defence team. She carried on with the affair after Mandela left prison. ANC members close to Mandela knew that was going on, as they did about her frequent bouts of drunkenness. I tried asking them why they did not talk to Mandela about her waywardness, but I was always met by frosty stares. Winnie became a taboo subject within the ANC during the two years after Mandela left prison. Confronting him with the truth was a step too far for the freedom fighters of the ANC.

His impeccably courteous public persona acted as a coat of armour protecting the sorrowing man within. But there came a point when Mandela could deceive himself, or the public, no longer. Details of the affair with Mpofu were made luridly public in a newspaper report two weeks before the separation announcement.

The article was a devastating, irrefutable expose of Winnie’s affair. It was based on a letter she had written to Mpofu that revealed he had recently had a child with a woman whom she referred to as “a white hag.” Winnie accused Mpofu of “running around f***** at the slightest emotional excuse … Before I am through with you, you are going to learn a bit of honesty and sincerity and know what betrayal of one’s love means to a woman … Remember always how much you have hurt and humiliated me … I keep telling you the situation is deteriorating at home, you are not bothered because you are satisfying yourself every night with a woman. I won’t be your bloody fool, Dali.”

In private, Mandela had already endured quite enough conjugal torture. I learnt of one especially hurtful episode from a friend of Mandela some years later. Not long after the end of her trial, Winnie was due to fly to America on ANC-related business. She wanted to take Mpofu with her, and Mandela said she should not, Winnie agreed not to, but went with him anyway. Mandela phoned her at her hotel room in New York, and Mpofu answered the phone.

On the face of it, Mandela was a man more sinned against than sinning, but he did not see it that way. It was his belief that the original sin was to have put his political cause before his family.

Despite everything, Mandela believed when he left prison that he would find a way to reconcile political and family life. Some years after his separation from Winnie, I interviewed his close friend Amina Cashalia, who had known him since before he met Winnie.” His one great wish,” she told me, “was that he would come out of prison, and have a family life again with his wife and the children. Because he’s a great family man and I think he really wanted that more than anything else and he couldn’t have it.”

His fallout with Winnie only deepened the catastrophe, contaminating his relationships with other family members, among them his daughter Zindzi. She was a far more complicated character than I had imagined when I chatted with her cheerfully in her mother’s kitchen over fried eggs. At that very moment, in late January 1990, her current lover, the father of her third child, was in a prison cell. Five days later he hanged himself.

Zindzi was very much her mother’s daughter, inheriting her capacity to dissemble as well as her strength of personality. The unhappiness and sheer chaos that she would endure in her own private life, a mirror of her mother’s, found expression in a succession of tense episodes with her father after he was set free.

One of them took place before friends and family on the day of her marriage to the father of her fourth child, six months after her parents’ separation. It was a glittering occasion at Johannesburg’s swankiest hotel, with Zindzi radiant in a magnificent pearl and sequin bridal dress. It seemed to be a joyous celebration; in truth, it provided further evidence of the Mandela family’s dysfunctions.

One of the guests seated near the top table was Helen Suzman, the white liberal politician and good friend of Mandela. She told me that he went through the ceremonial motions with all the propriety one would have expected. He joined in the cutting of the wedding cake and played his part when the time came to give his speech, declaring, “She’s not mine now,” as fathers are supposed to do. He did not, however, mention Winnie in the speech. When he sat down, he looked silent and cheerless.

Maybe he had had time to reflect in the intervening six months on the depth of Winnie’s betrayal. For more details had emerged of her love affairs and of the crimes of the gang of young men “Winnie’s boys,” as they were known in Soweto – who played the role of both bodyguards and courtly retinue. They had killed at least three young black men, beaten up Winnie’s perceived enemies and raped ;young girls.

Whether Mandela chose to realise it at the time, he was the reason that Winnie never ended up going to jail. Some years later, the minister of justice and the chief of national intelligence admitted to me that they had conveyed a message to the relevant members of the judiciary to show Winnie leniency.

Mandela’s mental and emotional wellbeing were essential to the success of the negotiations between the government and the ANC; for him to bow out of the process could have had catastrophic consequences for the country as a whole. Jailing Winnie would be too grave a risk.

Bizarrely, one of the guests at Zindzi’s wedding, prominently positioned near the top table, was the “white hag” Winnie had derided in her letter to Mpofu, and she was sitting next to a man I know to be another former lover of Winnie’s.

It also would have been difficult for Mandela to miss the menacing glances Winnie cast towards the “hag” although I hope he missed the moment when Winnie brushed past her and hissed at her former lover: “Go on! Take her ! Take her!”

When the band struck up and the newly married couple got up to dance, Mandela, who had been standing up, turned his back on Winnie and returned stiffly to the top table. Grim-faced for the rest of the night, he treated Winnie as if she did not exist. At one point, Suzman passed him a note. “Smile, Nelson,” it said.

In October 1994, five months after Mandela had become president, I spoke to a friend of his, one of the few people in whom he confided the details of his marital difficulties. The friend leant over to me and said: “It’s amazing. He has forgiven all his political enemies, but he cannot forgive her.”

During their divorce proceedings a year and a half later, he made his feelings towards Winnie public at the Rand Supreme Court, where he had accompanied and supported Winnie during her trial in 1991.

As his lawyer would tell me later, he was arbitrarily generous about sharing his estate, giving Winnie what was more than fair. But he made his feelings bluntly known in the divorce hearing. Standing a few feet away from her, he addressed the judge, saying: “Can I put it simply, my lord? If the entire universe tried to persuade me to reconcile with the defendant. I would not … I am determined to get rid of this marriage.”

He did not shirk from describing before the court the disappointment and misery of married life after he returned from prison. Winnie, he explained, did not share his bed once in the two years after their reunion. “I was the loneliest man,” he said.

The Victorian poet Arthur Hugh Clough wrote about the “terrible notions of duty” that boost the public figure but can stunt the private man. It is impossible to avoid concluding that Mandela was far less at ease in private than in public life. In the harsh world of South African politics he had his bearing; in the family sphere he often seemed baffled and lost.

Happily for his country, one did not drain energy from the other. Thanks to a kind of self-imposed apartheid of the mind, personal anguish and the political drive inhabited separate compartments and ran along parallel lines.

As out of control as she could be in her personal affairs, she possessed a lucid political intelligence and a mature understanding of where her husband’s priorities lay, even if she was deluded in attributing some of his qualities to herself.

“When you lead the kind of life we lead, if you are involved in a revolutionary situation, you cease to think in terms of self,” she said. “The question of personal feelings and reactions dues not even arise, because you are in a position where you think solely in terms of the nation, the people who have come first all your life.”

•Courtesy: Sunday Times

Extracted from Knowing Mandela by John Carlin

Helen Zille: Mamphela Ramphele has reneged on our agreement

In a statement, the DA leader says Agang SA leader has demonstrated that she can't be trusted to see a project through to its conclusion.

Statement issued by DA leader, Helen Zille, February 2 2014:

The Democratic Alliance leadership team today met with Dr Ramphele to finalise the terms of our agreement that she stand as the DA’s Presidential Candidate. This was to be the formalisation of the public announcement made on Tuesday last week.

At the meeting, Dr Ramphele reneged on the agreement that she stand as the DA’s Presidential Candidate, and that Agang SA’s branches, members and volunteers be incorporated into the DA. This about-turn will come as a disappointment to the many South Africans who were inspired by what could have been a historic partnership.

It is rare indeed for a political party to offer the position of presidential candidate to a leader from another party, but we believed this move would be in the best interests of South Africa. People are looking for a strong and united alternative to Jacob Zuma’s ANC, and we felt that Dr Ramphele would help us speed up the realignment of politics.  Constitutionally, she could only go to Parliament as the DA’s Presidential Candidate if she is a member of the DA.

The DA negotiated with Dr Ramphele in good faith. Indeed she is a long-time personal friend of mine and I sought to bring her into politics over many years.  We have been through many false starts, but when Dr Ramphele insisted on Monday that we go public on Tuesday to announce her acceptance of our offer of the DA’s presidential candidacy, we accepted that she had finally made up her mind.

By going back on the deal, again, just five days after it was announced, Dr Ramphele has demonstrated – once and for all – that she cannot be trusted to see any project through to its conclusion. This is a great pity.

Since Tuesday’s announcement, Dr Ramphele has been playing a game of cat and mouse – telling the media one thing, Agang supporters another thing, and the DA another.  It is not clear what her objective is, but whatever it is, it is not in the interests of the South African people.

The DA will nevertheless continue with its historic mission to build a non-racial political alternative in South Africa. We have the values, we have the structures, we have the machinery and we have the depth of leadership to succeed.

Developing...

Photo by Reuters.

Source: Daily Maverick...