African National Congress and South African president Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday visited Mbongweni village‚ Mbizana‚ Eastern Cape‚ the birthplace of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
He recounted recent meetings he had held with the ANC struggle veteran‚ after the ANC elective conference in December and during a voter registration drive in March.
"As the newly elected leadership of the ANC‚ one of the things we did was to visit Mama Winnie as one of our stalwarts - she gave us her blessings and expressed that she was pleased with the outcomes of conference‚" said Ramaphosa.
"I was with Mama during voter registration weekend. She said to me she was going to form part of our elections campaign. She was beautiful and energetic as always. I drove with her to her voting station and as we sat for lunch‚ she expressed happiness with the ANC."
Ramaphosa said it was heartwarming to be at the rural home of the Madikizela family‚ "to see where Mama grew up and to see the family that gave us such a great daughter."
"She came from you‚ but she belonged to the world.
"She brought up not only her own children during difficult times‚ she brought up the children of this country. She didn’t just get the title of Mother of the Nation‚ she cared for our people and provided leadership during our most trying times.
"She once said she is the product of the masses of our people and no truer words have been spoken. She lived among the people. She will always be your daughter‚ sister and aunt and grandmother. We thank you for giving us your daughter who made such a contribution."
The official memorial service for Madikizela-Mandela will be held in Soweto tomorrow‚ while her official funeral service will be held at Saturday.
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