I hold a view that everything in the world is perfectly timed and there is a divine significance for its occurrence.

I found the passing of the icon that is Winnie Madikizela-Mandela a perfectly timed occasion in a time when our country is faced with increasing hatred, weak and inauthentic leadership and poor representation of dynamic women leaders especially in the political forum. I thought we can use this time wisely as South Africans and reflect on what we can learn from the passing of this rock of ages.

1.       Political leaders should reflect on their purpose: We have moved from the politics of purpose to the politics of selfish human interest, marred with spewing racial divides, publicity stunts like morning walks, economy class flights, and YES, programmes that will have no sustainable economic impact in the lives of people. Perhaps our political leaders need to study Winnie’s life and remind themselves of what it means to lead, to serve. They need to understand that true leadership is centred on clear purpose, positive sustainable impact, and un-swayed conviction. We are now led by weak characters with malleable convictions who have a price and can sell their souls to the biggest bidder

2.       Apartheid was evil: Until such time we unequivocally agree as South Africans that apartheid was an evil course born of evil souls with evil ramifications, we will forever be hurling insults at one another because we are not dealing with the true elephant in the room, wrong was done and wrong needs to be acknowledged. For any South African who still has doubts about whether apartheid was wrong or not, watch Winnie’s life closely and ask yourself if the same treatment was presented to your mother, wife, aunt or sister how would you feel

3.       Is the enemy of a black man still white? Winnie-Madikizela fought against a clearly defined enemy but today the enemy has taken many forms, the enemy is in a black man providing poor substandard services to another black man, look at everything from public health care, municipalities, public education, public enterprises. We have clearly learned from the master that black doesn’t deserve excellence so much that we forget that we are black. We have squandered the little control we have and the only thing we built was Gautrain and World Cup Stadiums. The enemy is an enriched black man who colludes with the masters of apartheid to continue to amass wealth for his family, the enemy is the judicial system that continues to favour the rich, the enemy is continuing oppression of women, the high rape statistics and the enemy is culture of self-preservation that prevents people from standing up against what is wrong within their spheres of influence.

4.       We need a pipeline of dynamic women in leadership: Who can we call out as a dynamic women in the political sphere? I can’t think of long-list, we have a women ministry which might as well be closed for no one knows what its mandate is about, we have women leaders who have forgotten that strong nations have always had women as their anchors. We need exemplary women leaders who are bold, who stand up for what they believe and who will instil a birth of hope for our nation. We need women in all spheres to think about the importance of women in society and if we are doing justice in not stepping up and yes there is so much  women need to contend with to mark our voice but looking at Winnie Madikizela’s life, we should have hope that with an immovable spirit, lots can be achieved.

5.       We need to celebrate people more: The accepted status quo is that we celebrate people in their death but that steals so much from those who remain. Had we celebrated Winnie more we would have had opportunities to learn from her, to seek her guidance and to perhaps have her mentor other leaders. We need to survey the landscape and think of the current leaders we have and see how we can preserve their intellectual property, their lessons learned both the victorious ones and the ones they would do differently.

Thank you for a significant life Mme Winnie, you gave us your best and things are better because of you, forgive us for carelessness in which we expropriated this freedom we never compensated you for. Be at peace with the flaws in our display of better life for all.