- So, here's how it works...
-
- She was found guilty on 43 charges of fraudand 25 of
theft... for amounts totalling R1 million but hey... that's cool... she
gets a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card!!! Amazing or what?
-
- Oh, I must relate a story... You have no idea how wealthy
these people are, and how easily money comes into their hands. I have heard
many stories from people in Sandton, the very upperclass neighbourhood
Winnie Mandela often shops in - which tell of the extreme extravagance
of her shopping trips. Yet, in spite of amazing wealth... she still steals!!
-
- Some years ago... it was in about 1999... I did some
contract work for a large clothing retailer in Johannesburg. One day, a
black lady came to work near me. She was having work probems and I helped
her. Then she befriended me and we got talking. Her sister was about to
marry Winnie Mandela's sister's son. I was actually invited to the wedding,
and to this day I wish I had gone - just for the experience of seeing how
these people live.
-
- The stories that black woman told me about the wealth
of Winnie Mandela and her close relatives were stunning. I was awed by
what I heard. That same black woman jumped on a plane and flew to New York,
at the behest of the groom to buy a wedding ring for her sister - because,
the groom felt that South African jewelry was not good enough!!
-
- I never attended the wedding... which was to be held
at one of the finest hotels in Sandton. My contract ended shortly thereafter
and I lost touch with that black woman. Money, for our black elite is no
problem... for them, money grows on trees... - Jan
-
-
- News24.Com
7-5-4
-
- PRETORIA - A judge scrapped
a five-year jail sentence against the ex-wife of former president Nelson
Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, for theft and fraud in connection with
bank loans she obtained for her employees.
-
- On Monday, Judge Eberhardt Bertelsmann of the Pretoria
high court reduced the sentence handed down in April 2003 from five years
to three years and six months, and then declared it suspended in full.
-
- In handing down his ruling, the judge said that Madikizela-Mandela
had had "a long and often difficult role in public life" and
that "during her lifetime, she supported a greater cause than her
own".
-
- "The crimes were not committed for personal gain,"
he ruled.
-
- Madikizela-Mandela, the former president of the African
National Congress Women's League (ANCWL), was convicted on 43 charges of
fraud and 25 of theft totalling R1m.
-
- The judge overturned the conviction for theft but upheld
the one for fraud.
-
- Outside the courtroom, Madikizela-Mandela sounded defiant
and said her lawyers would appeal the judges' decision to uphold the fraud
charges.
-
- 'I'm fine'
-
- "I am as fine as I have always been," she said.
-
- "I have given instructions to my lawyers to appeal
the judgment (on the fraud charges) - a judgment that is completely wrong,"
she said.
-
- Her lawyer had argued in court last month that Madikizela-Mandela
was only trying to help her clients when she obtained fraudulent bank loans
for them by creating fictitious ANCWL employees.
-
- Known as the "Mother of the Nation" Madikizela-Mandela's
victory was greeted with joy by her supporters in the courtroom who sang
and engaged in toyi-toying.
-
- Her co-accused, financial services broker Addy Moolman,
also had 25 theft charges against him quashed, but he still faces a jail
sentence for fraud. The judge reduced Moolman's conviction for fraud from
five years to four.
-
- Winnie Madikizela came into Mandela's life about six
years before he was jailed for high treason by the apartheid government.
The couple married in June 1958 and had two daughters.
-
- Soon after the wedding she was arrested for delivering
a fiery speech, leading Mandela to remark - proudly and prophetically -
"I think I married trouble."
-
- Has been in prison before
-
- In the coming years, Madikizela-Mandela would be in and
out of jail as the police hounded her in a bid to demoralise him.
-
- In 1969, she was held in solitary confinement for 13
months on terrorism charges and again for six months in 1973, but when
the 1976 student riot revolt broke out in Soweto, Winnie was unbowed, urging
crowds to "fight to the bitter end".
-
- The police saw her as a mastermind of the uprising. She
was locked up for five months, then banished to the desolate town of Brandfort
for seven years.
-
- Edited by Tisha Steyn
-
- http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1553061,00.html
|
