As South Africans absorb the testimonies for and against Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela over nine dramatic days of hearings at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it seems clear that damage has been caused to her chances of becoming deputy president of the African National Congress. Mr Nelson Mandela, her former husband, will in two weeks time relinquish his post as ANC president in advance of stepping down from the government after the 1999 elections. Were she to be elected to the position at its forthcoming conference it would be a signal that South Africa might take a radically different route than the one charted so far by the ANC-dominated government.
Ms Mandela's political setback is good news for South Africa and its international reputation. The revelations of serious crimes, including murders, attributed to her during her days as a leader of the anti-apartheid struggle, along with the fog of lies, evasions, contradictions and self-justifications with which this section of the hearings was riddled, have provided a sad commentary on a series of episodes which has gone uninvestigated by the authorities because of her so-far untouchable status. As a result Ms Mandela has been able to evade responsibility and accountability for her actions then. She has maintained her role as a populist critic of the ANC government, accusing it of failing to deliver on its promises to the poorest of the poor and feathering the nests of a new political establishment.
Part of her case is that she had been targeted by that establishment before the conference in order to deflect her criticisms and discredit her good name in the eyes of her supporters. Certainly these televised proceedings, followed avidly by South Africans of all races and creeds, have had a clear political focus. But people are well able to distinguish between Ms Mandela's role as a rumbustuous critic and her culpability for the activities of the "Mandela United football club" in the late 1980s. A lot of the evidence against her was damning and has convinced several ANC regional organisations, and even critics within the Women's League, her main nominator for the deputy presidential position, to reconsider their support. But she is a doughty fighter with a genuine appeal to the ANC rank and file, who have shown their independence of leadership preferences in several recent elections.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is empowered to issue amnesties but not to make findings as to guilt. Its mandate is to investigate the gross human rights abuses in the period 1960-1994. Its originality has been to link the pursuit of truth with reconciliation and forgiveness, leaving open the question of criminal proceedings. Its hearings have provided the occasion for bringing much evidence of horrifying human rights abuses, principally by representatives of the apartheid state, into the open. There was more reticence in dealing with abuses by ANC representatives until Ms Mandela's case was heard. Her unconvincing apology was induced in maudlin manner by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, its chairman, just when she faced the most awkward questioning about an alibi. It remains to be seen whether criminal proceedings will be initiated against her.