SOUTH AFRICA: In what appeared to mark the end of her long and controversial political career, African National Congress leader Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has been sentenced to imprisonment for five years, one of which was suspended, after earlier being found guilty of fraud and theft.
In a brief statement after the regional court magistrate, Mr Peet Johnson, imposed the sentence, Madikizela-Mandela announced her intention to resign "in the fullness of time" as a member of parliament, as the president of the ANC Women's League and as a member of the ANC's national executive committee.
But in a sign that she still hoped to avoid the indignity of serving a prison sentence, Madikizela-Mandela and her co-accused, Andy Moolman, were granted permission to apply for leave to appeal against conviction and sentence. Their bail was, however, raised from R5,000 to R10,000.
Parliamentary rules disqualify citizens from serving as representatives in parliament if they have been sentenced to imprisonment for 12 months or more. The rule would apparently come into force in Madikizela-Mandela's case as her conviction and sentence remain on her record until and unless the Supreme Court of Appeal upholds her planned appeal against them.
Madikizela-Mandela's decision to resign as a parliamentary representative of the ANC might have been influenced by another development yesterday: the dismissal by the high court in Cape Town of her application for a court order to prevent the speaker of parliament, Frene Ginwala, from publicly reprimanding her.
The parliamentary ethics committed recommended that the speaker do so after it learnt that Madikizela-Mandela had not disclosed - as required under the parliamentary code of ethics - that she received R55,000 a month from "friends and well-wishers" and had business interests in the Mandela Museum in Soweto, near Johannesburg.
Thus the prospect of public chastisement in parliament was added to the trauma of her conviction for fraud and theft and the five-year prison sentence imposed by the regional court in Pretoria.
Resignation from parliament by Madikizela-Mandela would avert public chastisement by the speaker, as her appeal would, at the least, defer the humiliation of imprisonment.
The magistrate took account of her age - she is in her mid-sixties - and her contribution to the struggle against apartheid, for which she was harassed, banned, banished and detained in solidarity confinement for 21 months by the previous white government. The magistrate explained, too, that Madikizela-Mandela would only have to serve eight months of her prison sentence before qualifying for parole and community service.
Police cordoned off the streets around the regional court to forestall demonstrations against her conviction and sentence.
In court, the president of the Congress of South African Students, Mr Julius Malima, greeted the sentencing by shouting at the magistrate that she was a "victim of the revolution". Another student said she did not deserve to be tried for fraud and theft.
The ANC made no immediate comment, apart from stating that it was studying the judgment.