Winnie Mandela by Anné Mariè du Preez Bezdrob Page A

she was utterly astonished to find that the letter contained the offer of a post as the hospital’s first black medical social worker. Adelaide found her sitting on a bench in the hostel entrance hall, staring incredulously at the letter. Without a word, Winnie handed her the sheet of paper. Adelaide, always high-spirited and demonstrative, shrieked and threw her arms around Winnie in delight.
    Winnie was overwhelmed. She had already set her sights on further study in America, but what she really wanted was to be a social worker, and now she had the chance to do so, and in Johannesburg, which she loved. She would have to make an agonising choice, and after weighing all the pros and cons, consulted Professor Phillips. He listened to her carefully, but pointed out that ultimately only she could decide what was best for her. She wished she could have discussed her predicament with Professor Hough as well, but he was furthering his studies in Boston and would not return to South Africa until 1957.
    When Winnie wrote to her father for advice, he also counselled that she wouldhave to make her own choice, but as Winnie read his letter she thought she could discern, between the lines, that her father believed their people needed her. She knew her decision would have a profound influence on her life, and in the end was absolutely certain that she had to accept the post at Baragwanath Hospital.
    When she told Professor Phillips of her decision, and her regret at not being able to accept the American scholarship, he assured her that she would probably be able to use it at a later date. Some years later, when the occasion did arise for her to study abroad, she again decided against it.
    Her fateful decision to stay in South Africa set her on the path of a meeting with Nelson Mandela – and a life of political activism, persecution and imprisonment.

 
4
Mandela wants to marry me
    T HE NEW GENERATION of educated urban blacks quite naturally formed the black elite of the fifties. This burgeoning group of young professionals – lawyers, teachers, doctors, nurses and social workers – was changing the face of South Africa. They moved in a relatively small circle, and many were friends, colleagues or even members of the same extended families.
    When Winnie presented herself at Baragwanath Hospital in 1956 to take up the newly created position of medical social worker, she was a carefree, cheerful and self-confident young woman. Stories and photographs appeared in the newspapers, savouring the achievement of the girl from Pondoland who turned out to be both beautiful and gifted. Winnie sent the newspaper cuttings to Columbus and Hilda.
    She launched her career with determination and enthusiasm, and without the slightest premonition that her dreams and ambitions would be dashed by her own principles and choices. Before long she was flooded with cases and totally absorbed in her work: tracing patients’ relatives, sorting out problems related to accident claims and work-related injuries, and arranging funerals. In addition to being patient and compassionate, Winnie was cheerful and dedicated, and became a firm favourite with patients and staff alike. While doing fieldwork in her final year at college, Winnie had come to believe that there could be no worse poverty than she encountered in Tsolo, but what she found in the townships of Johannesburg was all the more shocking when contrasted against the abundance in the City of Gold. Acutely aware of the appalling conditions under which most people were forced to live and angered that this was the result of inequalities built into the system, she needed every grain of tenacity not to be demoralised.
    One of her duties was to visit new mothers at home after they had given birth at Bara. The conditions were often heart-rending. People lived in makeshift shacks thrown together from nothing but discarded corrugated iron and board, with stones holding down the roof and rags and newspapers stuffed