Winnie snubs Graça
2012-07-19 11:49
Johannesburg - Winnie Madikizela-Mandela appeared to snub her ex-husband's current wife Graça Machel, reports said On Thursday.
Winnie had been scheduled to inaugurate a child care centre with Machel in Qunu in the Eastern Cape. But Machel, after being kept waiting for an hour, eventually left.
Winnie later arrived for the ceremony in the company of the former youth league leaders.
"It's a pity that my little sister Graça left," she said.
Madikizela-Mandela also made a public appearance with Julius Malema in Qunu, the home village of Mandela, as the country celebrated his 94th birthday on Wednesday, The Sowetan reported.
Praise for Malema
"Thank you very much for making us see in our lifetime that it is possible to liberate our people economically and better their lives," Madikizela-Mandela said in a tribute to Malema, the expelled leader of the ANC Youth League.
"Thank you very much for leading that campaign because it is as a result of your emphasis, the youth league's emphasis, on the role we should be playing as freedom fighters," she added.
Malema, whom Madikizela-Mandela referred to as her "grandson", was once a vocal campaigner for President Jacob Zuma, at one point vowing to "kill" for him.
But his fiery rhetoric eventually became too much, as Malema advocated seizing mines and farms and called for "regime change" in democratic Botswana.
Madikizela-Mandela, who has also been accused of populism, castigated the ANC a week ago saying the party was abusing the Mandela family name, pulling it up only when needed, yet treating the family shabbily.
She said it was "most painful" that 18 years after the advent of democracy in South Africa "we still have people who say we have failed them."
"Our country is in deep trouble as we make promises, and the promises are not fulfilled," she added.
