Zelda: Madiba, too, was an angry young man

If she could choose to work for anyone after having worked for former president Nelson Mandela, that person would be Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, said Madiba's former personal assistant Zelda la Grange.

Addressing the Cape Town Press Club yesterday afternoon, La Grange, who was speaking and taking questions on her book, Good Morning, Mr Mandela, also had some advice for EFF leader Julius Malema.

"I think Mr Malema's anger is justifiable. Madiba always said he was angry, as a younger man. But forgiveness is important. We should differ with respect, not hostility. I agree with much of what Mr Malema is saying, but not with his disrespectful tone," she said.

She quoted Business Day editor Songezo Zibi saying morality should be put before populism.

Regarding Graça Machel, Madiba's widow, La Grange said: "She is fine, and she is coping."

La Grange has seen Machel twice in the last two weeks.

She made only one apparent barbed comment about President Jacob Zuma, when referring to the time Madiba was hauled before the courts by former rugby supremo Louis Luyt.

"He insisted on defending himself, unlike other people," she said.

She said she wrote her book because she felt she had a duty to share the lessons and privileges she gained from her years serving Madiba - rather than produce a tell-all book.

"This is not a definitive book on Madiba. I also certainly did not expect the whole country to suddenly sing Kumbaya as one, or receive a phone call from Norway [an apparent reference to the Nobel literature prize]," she said about criticism of her book.

She told of the secret proofreading of the book in the UK, when she used the pseudonym Anna Tolstoy. "The British editors told us no one spoke in the way I wrote, but I was insistent not to lose my voice," she said.

She said she was worried about the rise of disrespect in public discourse and asked people not to forget Madiba's legacy less than a year after his death.