Anger over new Winnie Mandela book, accusations of 'fake shout-outs'

A letter penned by radio and TV personality Redi Thlabi slamming the author and publishers of a controversial new book about Winnie Mandela has gone viral. 

The book, Truth, lies and alibis, lists quotes on the back of the book by Thlabi, Sisonke Msimang, Palesa Morudu and Aubrey Matshiqi.

"Winnie was a women of her times, there was a war and she too was a soldier," reads the quote from Thlabi on the back of the book. It credits the quote to the Sunday Times.

In the letter, Thlabi said her quote was taken from an article that she had written for Sunday Times and would be interpreted by readers as a "shout-out" for the book.

Her full letter was published on The Reading List, apparently with her approval. 

Thlabi said she was appalled and knew she had not been contacted as the contents of the book by Fred Bridgland are the "antithesis of what I believe and the complexity of when I embrace historical figures."

"I am appalled. How dare you! How dare you Tafelberg. You have been conniving and dishonest. You knew where to find me. Why didn't you do it?" she wrote in the letter published on The Reading List.

Tafelberg did not respond to TimesLIVE at the time of publishing this article. This statement was issued on their Twitter account.

Morudu tweeted her anger about this issue last week.

Bridgland, the author of the book, has responded to being labelled an "apartheid apologist."

"It's untrue. The person who made the allegation has never met me. If they read the book, they would see that there's not a word of endorsement of apartheid. It makes it clear - apartheid was an appalling system."

Bridgland said the book was "less about Winnie Mandela as you see in the introduction, but more about the little and unimportant people who suffered, and sometimes died, at the hands of the Mandela Football Club."

You can read the full article with Bridgland's response here.

*This story has been amended to include comments by Fred Bridgland