Nelson Mandela - The African Mirror

Aug

2020

Tributes for Mandela-era liberation stalwart

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa has led nationwide tributes to John Nkadimeng, the ANC liberation stalwart and veteran trade unionist who has died, aged 95. To honour Nkadimeng, Ramaphosa has declared a special official funeral for him and ordered that the national flag must be flown at half-mast until the evening of August 14. Nkadimeng was among the 156 Congress activists who were detained during the Defiance Campaign in 1952 and charged with treason in the 1956 Treason Trial. He also went to exile, taking refuge in numerous neighboring countries. Ramaphosa said: “We have lost a remarkable…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Andrew Mlangeni 1925-2020: South Africa loses the last of the Rivonia triallists

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

KEITH GOTTSCHALK, Political Scientist, University of the Western Cape ANTI-apartheid struggle hero Andrew Mokete Mlangeni, who died this week at the age of 95, was the last surviving of the eight African National Congress (ANC) activists who were sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Rivonia trial in the 1960s. Mlangeni spent 20 of his 26 years in jail on Robben Island alongside fellow triallist Nelson Mandela and other luminaries of the ANC. He symbolised the generations who had joined the ANC during the most dangerous period of resistance to apartheid. No rewards, but only vindictive persecution, including detention and…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Special funeral for South African liberation hero

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER SOUTH Africa has conferred its highest honor for Andrew Mlangeni, the 95-year-old political hero who passed away this week. The South African government has declared the highest class of an official funeral for the stalwart, who was a co-accused with the iconic Nelson Mandela in the Rivonia Treason Trial during which they were convicted and sentenced to life. He was the last remaining Rivonia trialist. President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the declaration of a special funeral: category 1 for Mlangeni, who turned 95 in last month, was a mark of respect. “Bab’ Mlangeni was awarded Isithwalandwe/Seaparankwe…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Mbeki’s tribute to Mlangeni

NEWS

"NEWS that Andrew Mlangeni had passed away has been received with genuine grief and sadness by many people in South Africa. Ntate Mlangeni, born June 6 1925 in Bethlehem, Free State, and passed away after a short illness on July 21 2020. Mlangeni came from a farm labourer family who were evicted while he was of a tender age. That is what brought him and his widowed mother to Johannesburg in search of work. From those humble beginnings was born and nurtured one who was to be driven by a passion for justice, a disdain for apartheid, and ultimately had…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Andrew Mlangeni in his own words…

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

IN honour of Andrew Mlangeni, a true South African hero, leader, grandfather, golfer and icon, the African Mirror today publishes a powerful speech he delivered two years ago when he was conferred with an honorary doctorate by Rhodes University. “My name is Andrew Mokete Mlangeni, born of farm tenants as a result of racially legislated land dispossession of the Land Act of 1913. I was born under the farm labour tenancy system. Which means from the day I was conceived, I was destined to be a future farm worker because of the labour tenancy system. A condemnation which many farm…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Gallery: In memory of Andrew Mlangeni

MULTIMEDIA

SOUTH African political stalwart Andrew Mlangeni, the last surviving Rivonia trialist, has died. Mlangeni, 95, passed on at the 1 Military Hospital in Thaba Tshwane, Pretoria, where he had been admitted for treatment following an abdominal pain complaint. https://youtu.be/0gFsYi7mQFEVIDEO: City of Johannesburg

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

U.N. chief to world leaders: ‘Inequality starts at the top’

NEWS

MICHELLE NICHOLS U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has accused world powers of ignoring inequality in global institutions but said the coronavirus pandemic has created a "generational opportunity" to build a more equal, sustainable world. Delivering the annual lecture for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Guterres pushed for a so-called New Global Deal to ensure power, wealth and opportunity are shared more broadly and fairly at the international level. "The nations that came out on top more than seven decades ago have refused to contemplate the reforms needed to change power relations in international institutions," Guterres said. "The composition and voting rights in…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Zindzi Mandela buried next to her mom and grandchildren

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER FRIENDS of the late struggle activist and diplomat Zindziswa "Zindzi" Mandela-Hlongwane held red roses and her coffin was carried over a red carpet in a poignant, emotional and dignified final farewell to her. Zindzi, who died this week, was buried today next to her mother, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and her two grandchildren Zinawe and Zenani after a private funeral service at the Fourways Memorial Garden in Johannesburg. Zindzi was the youngest daughter of liberation icons Madikizela-Mandela and the great Nelson Mandela. She was buried a day before what would have been her father’s 102nd birthday. Her family disclosed…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

“My last meeting with Zindzi Mandela”

NEWS

THAMI KA PLAATJE AT a recent international conference at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, I had an occasion to reunite with Sis Zindzi. She was in the company of her amiable and jovial elder sister Zenani and we took to the remote corner to share our thoughts far from the ambassadorial glee and diplomatic loquaciousness of the conference. This was our first encounter since the passing of Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela, and the occasion called for some long catch-up and chit -chat albeit within the limited time allowed by the rigours of the conference underway. Zindzi bemoaned the…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Gallery: Zindzi Mandela

MULTIMEDIA

ZINDZISWA “ZINDZI” MANDELA: 23 December 1960 - 13 July 2020. A picture says a thousand words. Captured in these images are memories of Zindzi, who many South Africans remember as a comrade, a mother, a grandmother, a sister, a cousin or a simply, a woman of her time, born into the struggle against apartheid.