Mbeki says no to a hug from Winnie

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, JUNE 18. In a markedly exasperated public gesture of rebuke and dismissal, the South African President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki literally gave the brush-off to Ms. Winnie Madikizela- Mandela, president of the ANC Women's League and senior ANC leader, at a public rally in Soweto on the occasion of Youth Day.

The incident, captured live on national television, brings to the fore once again the controversial personality of Ms. Madikizela- Mandela and her presently fraught relations with Mr. Mbeki. Mr. Mbeki's attendance at the rally, held at the Orlando Stadium to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, was a high-profile affair, attended by several other senior leaders, including the Home Minister and IFP leader, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Mr. Madikizela-Mandela arrived at the rally late, as is her wont, well after Mr. Mbeki had taken his seat on the stage.

As always, her arrival was greeted by some commotion and enthusiastic ululation by her supporters in the crowd, highlighting the all too obvious fact that she continues to enjoy huge grass roots support in the organisation and indeed among the black majority.

However, when she went up to the stage to greet Mr. Mbeki by hugging and giving him a kiss, Mr. Mbeki turned his face away and, using his hand, literally pushed her away from him. In the process, he knocked off her ANC cap.

There was no mistaking the brush-off or the annoyance in Mr. Mbeki's facial expression and body language.

One could see that he had also said something to her in evident anger, though one could not make out what he said.

The hug and kiss are all too normal gestures of affection and solidarity among senior ANC leaders.

Even after her divorce from Mr. Nelson Mandela, Ms. Madikizela- Mandela always greeted her former husband with a hug and kiss. During the ANC's National Conference in Mafikeng in December 1997, for instance, Mr. Mandela responded to such gestures from his former wife quite normally, though by then he was having a relationship with Ms. Graca Machel whom he was to marry six months later.

Perhaps the reason for Mr. Mbeki's rebuff should be related to the recent tensions in their relationship, following the letter that Ms. Madikizela-Mandela is believed to have written to the Deputy President, Mr. Jacob Zuma, complaining about the failure of Mr. Mbeki to refute allegations made by persons close to him that she had been spreading rumours that Mr. Mbeki was a ``womaniser''.

The letter was ``leaked'' to the press early this year, with suggestions that it was all part of the internal tensions in the ANC, and that Mr. Mbeki would face a challenge to his position as ANC president at the next ANC National Conference, due in December next year. Mr. Zuma then took to the extraordinary recourse of disclaiming any such ambitions. The most interesting aspect of the brush-off is the sympathy and support that Ms. Madikizela-Mandela has received, not so much from the black people but most unexpectedly from Mr. Tony Leon of the Democratic Alliance and other right-wingers, her virulent political opponents.

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Section  : International
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