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Mandela Autobiography Chapter 42

Any and every source was of interest to me. I read the report of Blas Roca, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, about their years as an illegal organization during the Batista regime. In Commando by Deneys Reitz, I read of the unconventional guerrilla tactics of the Boer generals during the Anglo-Boer War. I read works by and about Che Guevara, Mao Tse-tung, Fidel Castro. In Edgar Snow's brilliant Red Star Over China I saw that it was Mao's determination and nontraditional thinking that led him to victory. I read The Revolt by Menachem Begin and was encouraged by the fact that the Israeli leader had led a guerrilla force in a country with neither mountains nor forests, a situation similar to our own. I was eager to know more about the armed struggle of the people of Ethiopia against Mussolini, and of the guerrilla armies of Kenya, Algeria, and the Cameroons.

Mandela is a terrorist, despises the United States, and worships our enemies.

Nelson Mandela, feels very comfortable and at home with murderers as Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe, and every other communist African tyrant, birds of a feather flock together. Mr. Mandela is not morally qualified to criticize President Bush after condoning and supporting the criminal records of those tyrants.

Furthermore, Nelson’s wife Winnie revealed their true color and those of the ANC at Munsieville, on April 13, 1986, when she said: "With our boxes of matches and our necklaces ["necklacing:" a torture in which a gasoline-filled tire is placed around the neck of a victim and set ablaze], we shall liberate this country." (South African Digest, April 18, 1986, p. 324)

WINNIE MANDELA'S NECKLACING

Winnie Mandela has been tied to kidnappings and assaults, as well as disappearances that took place. She also has been quoted as saying, "With our matches and our necklaces, we will liberate South Africa," referring to the practice of placing gasoline-soaked tires around the necks of those some anti-apartheid activists consider "traitors", and lighting them on fire.

Unlike most of their counterparts in the United States, the progressive movement in south Africa refused to keep silent in the face of Mandela's brutality.

In fact, the first reports of the assaults and killing were published by an anti-apartheid newspaper, not the press controlled by or supportive of the government. Anti-apartheid organizations in south africa, such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the United Democratic Front (UDF), were quick to condemn such violence on the part of Mandela.

The UDF/COSATU statement read, in part, "We are outraged at Mrs Mandela's obvious complicity in the recent abductions and assault of Stompie.... We are outraged by the reign of terror that the team [Mandela's body guards, also known as the Mandela United Soccer Club or the Mandela Football Club] has been associated with. Not only is Mrs Mandela associated with the team, in fact, the team is her own creation. We are of the view that Mrs Mandela has abused the trust and confidence which she has enjoyed over the years.... The Mass Democratic Movement hereby distances itself from Mrs Mandela and her actions."

This rebuke from her former allies in the anti-apartheid movement came only five months after another challenge to her image as a well-liked opposition leader. In September 1988, Mandela's home in Soweto was burned down by local "comrades," apparently in retaliation for a sexual assault against a student leader by members of the "football club." (Apparently, real sexual abuse is acceptable to Mandela and her friends, as long as it is heterosexual.)

The attack on Mandela's home appears to have been prompted as well by ill-feeling generated by Mandela's rather comfortable lifestyle, which includes ownership of a Mercedes, in the midst of the widespread poverty in Soweto.

According to a source in the anti-apartheid labor movement, the public condemnation of Mandela by COSATU and UDF was prompted by pressure on the part of Soweto residents fed up with the activities of Mandela and her associates. Prior to the killing of Stompie Seipei, opposition among other anti-apartheid activists to Mandela's thugs had led both Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela to call on her to disband the club.

Thomas Sowell discussed the mindset of Mandela's supporters: "Long before the present ugly episode, Winnie Mandela was justifying the hideous practice of burning political enemies alive. How could anyone have romanticized such a person? Like too many other issues, South Africa is not approached as a serious question about the fate of millions of flesh-and-blood human beings, but as a symbolic issue providing yet another backdrop for our own moral preening. Those who are preoccupied with showing that they are on the side of the angels are quick to find angels to side with. Winnie Mandela was just one of those angels."

Just as many American leftists once ignored credible evidence that progressive leaders like Lenin and Castro were brutalizing and killing dissidents, most leftists today continue to fawn over Mandela, despite the fact that even many of her former allies have seen her for the bully she is and have spoken out against her. People who are serious about liberation, sexual and otherwise, need to have a consistent commitment to personal freedom and be willing to speak out whenever people are unjustly attacked, whoever the attacker may be. Hypocritically covering-up and apologizing for the excesses of progressives puts into serious doubt the left's stated commitment to a free society.