Priscilla Jana is still as tough as she was when she was a young lawyer fighting for the rights of Solomon Mahlangu, Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela. Jana, now in her early 70s, has a bad cough but finds a place to sit upright so that she can talk. In her book, Fighting for Mandela, Jana documents her time in the struggle against apartheid. It takes readers back to the dark days of the '80s, when the state of emergency was at its worst and the government served banning orders on anyone it perceived as a threat. Jana was banned for five years.Under the terms of these banning orders, being in the same room as more than one other person was illegal, which meant she couldn't see her sick mother and husband at the same time. It also meant she had to adopt extraordinary strategies in her battles for the rights of her clients.story_article_left1Jana wants us to remember this struggle history, its heroes, and what South Africans fought for."We are a really proud country with a rich history. Most important is recognising that and taking that forward. That is most crucial for the country. That is why I wrote this book now."As member of the first democratically elected parliament, she has been shaken by what is happening in the ANC. "Mandela must be turning in his grave. I am deeply shocked by what the ANC has become. The struggle was the struggle by everyone for everyone."In her book, Jana doesn't hold back her sense of disappointment: "We finally put apartheid, colonialism and slavery behind us after 350 years, but we are not yet reaping the rewards of that great fight. It is going to take much longer. The government must of course take responsibility."I fear our great leaders have gone. Mandela, Govan Mbeki and Walter Sisulu were political giants and visionaries, but they were all severely handicapped by their advanced age by the time they were able to govern."Today there is a second tier, more interested in personal enrichment. Even those I know from Robben Island or other prisons have an attitude that says: 'We've done our bit, we've paid our dues. We have the right to enjoy the fruits of all our suffering.' They are heavily involved in investments and business, concepts alien to the High Command of the ANC when I knew and worked alongside them."And she did work alongside most of the ANC's struggle leaders - she was part of Jackie Selebi's Umkhonto weSizwe underground cell, reported to Thabo Mbeki in London and became friends with Jacob Zuma.When asked if Zuma should step down, she chooses her words.mini_story_image_hright1"The situation needs more analysis. I know him well. Zuma has tremendous peacemaking abilities. And one thing you can say about him is that he is not racist. He is a very proud man, yes. I don't think it will be easy for him to resign. He has built himself a constituency."In the book she writes admiringly of his negotiating skills in KwaZulu-Natal in the early '90s: "It came down to Jacob Zuma, a guerrilla fighter who had headed ANC intelligence in exile, to confront his own people and try to find peace. He was a Zulu and spoke their language."I found him a bright, passionate leader and came to know him well. We went to jazz concerts together and my mother invited him to her house in Durban for curry. Zuma was on top of what was happening among the Zulus, and he had no vested interest. Unlike Mandela, he could afford to try and to fail, if that was how it turned out, without losing face. I asked him bluntly: 'Can you possibly succeed?' He told me: 'I have to. These are my people.'"Jana was "nominated to be South Africa's first public protector, but according to those who opposed my appointment I was 'too ANC'". She says more women leaders will help balance the scales - women like Thuli Madonsela.The admiration is mutual. Madonsela described Jana in a speech last year as "a rock star of defiant legal practice in the midst of apartheid".Another woman she admires is Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, for whom she has nothing but praise, saying that she "understands all Winnie's issues. She was one of the greatest women in the struggle. She was committed to the cause."In Fighting for Mandela, Jana describes how she and Madikizela-Mandela became friends: "One of the troublesome files now on my desk was that of Winnie Mandela, the bold, charismatic and sometimes recklessly courageous wife of the ANC's imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela ... Fatima Meer, a renowned Indian academic and activist, had been staying at my house and needed to meet Winnie for a clandestine chat. They were great friends. Both had been banned and detained, at one time in prison together.block_quotes_start Mandela was not a cowering person. You felt that the minute you saw him. We had many confrontations over the years block_quotes_endSo I tagged along, tremendously excited, as we discreetly popped into a clothing store in West Street, Johannesburg, and made our way into the back of the shop. Winnie - in my eyes the epitome of a beautiful black woman - was stylishly dressed, wearing a turban hat. Her face was wreathed in smiles as she hugged Fatima, then it was my turn. I was absolutely in awe of her. I told her about life in Lenasia and my law studies. I think we bonded then, and I was to see a great deal more of her."Later in the book she presents her view on the murder of youth activist Stompie Moeketsi (Seipei): "With hindsight I see clearly now that Winnie had been set up, in so many ways. She was hosting a gang of roughnecks in her home, not realising that they were state agents paid to disrupt the struggle at its grassroots. And they succeeded so well that Winnie was completely drawn in, only to have them turn against her when matters finally came to the Johannesburg Supreme Court."She also describes viewing Mandela with utmost respect - despite sometimes disagreeing with him: "Mandela was not a cowering person. You felt that the minute you saw him. We had many confrontations over the years."Of one confrontation, she writes: "I had lunch with him at Victor Verster [prison] and it was really very tense. I wanted to know why he was seeing different [ethnic] groups. He called it groupism and said there was much merit in it, citing Russia and the Soviet Union as an example. I was disappointed, telling him that he was leader of all South Africans whether Indian, Coloured or whatever, and should address all of us as a people."Mandela listened to me but his chieftainship would always take priority at these times. He had natural stature and great authority. Nothing I said was going to change him. So I left that lunch feeling unhappy. I did not think any less of him, but I was unhappy."full_story_image_vleft2Jana says Mandela had a great strength of belief and "was from the old school. He had to have the last word on everything. It was him being a chief." She writes: "We all had an expectation at that time that Mandela was almost infallible. In the minds of his people he had been elevated to saint-like status and now I was being reminded that in fact he was as fallible as any other ordinary human being."One of his errors of judgment, Jana says, was standing by Madikizela-Mandela at her trial for the murder of Moeketsi."I'm still not sure that was the correct position for him to take. But Winnie was Nelson's great love and vice versa. I still think today that there was some underlying guilt, which is sad. He felt responsible for Winnie's behaviour."She writes: "I was acutely aware, though, that Mandela was suffering emotionally as never before. There is no doubt that he was still very much in love with Winnie and had been able to put aside the stories he had heard about her affairs."But in reality they were finding it hard to bring that love back to life now that he, no longer the physically irresistible 44-year-old man he was when he was torn from her and sent to Robben Island, had come home. It was hard for him to compete with the younger, bolder men who had openly courted Winnie over the years."I was concerned that Mandela was not happy, and aware that the ANC and the UDF [United Democratic Front] wanted nothing more than to separate him from Winnie.mini_story_image_hright3"On the one hand I would visit the Mandelas at their house in Diepkloof ... and feel the strained atmosphere for myself. On the other, I felt strongly that this was actually one of the world's most profound love affairs and could surely be mended."Even after I had visited for coffee one day ... and found Winnie's handsome young lover Dali Mpofu sitting in the lounge with her and her husband, I felt things could be put right. Certainly I thought it was bizarre, and brazen, particularly on Dali's part.Why would he, an ardent supporter of the anti-apartheid movement and an ambitious lawyer himself, want to undermine Mandela, the cuckolded husband, in such a public display? I took this badly, but I still thought the fundamental love between the Mandelas would come right. It was clear that outside pressure was being brought to bear, to persuade Mandela to leave Winnie."I said to Valli Moosa: 'Why are you interfering? This is his personal life.' He told me: 'No. Mandela belongs to us. He belongs to the people. We have a right to get involved, to encourage him to leave her.'"The UDF and the ANC were terrified that Winnie was poisoning Mandela against them. I had heard her once on the phone to Oliver Tambo, screaming: 'Never mind crossing the Limpopo River full of crocodiles when you come back to South Africa. You will have to cross me too, and that will be even more dangerous.' I had to ask her who she was talking to. When she said it was Tambo I was astonished. We were sitting in her lounge; she was absolutely raging, and I was shocked. But she was in no frame of mind to listen to me."So I was well aware of the campaign to remove Mandela from Winnie and put him on that solitary plinth where he could be a lone, strong leader, single-mindedly at the heart of his people again."Jana considers the Mahlangu trial in 1977 as one of the cases that changed her life. "We fought hard for his life to be saved. But in the end, the state decided he was guilty. He was bright and sensitive. He was innocent. He was an exceptional young man, who was definitely not a murderer and should never have been tried. It was an injustice."mini_story_image_hleft4In Fighting for Mandela, Jana recounts the first time Mahlangu's mother saw him in prison: "When his mother broke down in tears at the sight of him, he asked her: 'Why are you crying in front of these dogs? I don't care what they do to me. If they spill my blood it may give birth to others like me.'"When Soweto students revolted against Afrikaans as their tuition language, Solomon's consciousness had been sharpened. He joined the liberation movement. He was known as gentle and caring, compassionate and respectful. He preferred a nonconfrontational approach and wanted nothing more than to be able to study.But he had to help achieve freedom before he could achieve education. He spent six months training with MK, a crash course in sabotage. He had been sent back to South Africa through Swaziland to await further instructions for a mission. The rules were that no civilians be killed in any sabotage operations. Solomon was to attack hard targets only."Jana says she "has deep hope for South Africa" and that we need "good people to step up and lead".In Fighting for Mandela she ends on a positive note: "There is deep-seated damage of course, but our spirit of ubuntu, that uniquely African sense of togetherness in human worth, will see us through to yet become one of the greatest nations in the world.""Fighting for Mandela" by Priscilla Jana (John Blake Publishers, R425)..