Johannesburg – The Economic Freedom Fighters have condemned calls by Mandla Mandela for an inquest into Winnie Mandela to probe the death of Stompie Moeketsi and Abu-Baker Asvat, calling Mandla a “pseudo tribal chief”.

“These two cases were not only settled by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but mama Winnie Mandela has already paid the price for her presumed involvement,” said EFF national spokesperson, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, in a press statement.

Ndlozi, singing the praises of Winnie Mandela as a struggle icon, said Mandla Mandela was being vindictive, and was opportunistically seeking to further discredit Winnie Mandela.

“In his dark heart, he wishes to erase mama Mandela the same way the apartheid system sought to do. He wishes to dig her up so that he alone can claim Nelson Mandela,” said Ndlozi.

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Ndlozi said Winnie Mandela was a struggle veteran in her own right, while Mandla Mandela had grown up with the life ambition of becoming a DJ.

“Mandla Mandela is currently a Member of Parliament in South Africa not because of his own credentials, activism and political contributions to the organisation that deployed him, but because he was done a favour due to his surname,” he said.

“He will not be allowed to tarnish the image of true freedom fighters like Mama Winnie Mandela because of his personal quest for riches he wishes to inherit from Nelson Mandela’s estate,” Ndlozi said.

Ndlozi said in comparison, Winnie Mandela had kept the underground movement alive during the 1970s, while Nelson Mandela and others were incarcerated.

“She paid in torture, imprisonment, build, led and inspired an underground movement which brought the apartheid regime to its knees in the 1980s.”

“She became the face of a movement, not only as a matriarch who rejected false peace; she, like Laila Khalid, affirmed the right of black people to resist in violence.

“She did this, not from comfortable offices in London. She was in the trenches, fighting the boers with stone as did the masses of our people,” said Ndlozi.

Ndlozi said Mandla Mandela represented the misogynist patriarchal rejection of the calibre of leadership that Winnie Mandela became.

 “We reject Mandla Mandela as an aberration; a perfect fork in the hands of evil, turning and cooking the fires of hatred and vindictiveness.”