The humble house where Winnie found a second home

Together, they worked underground in the Orlando West ANC branch, chaired by Barney Ngakane.

Left alone at home while Nelson Mandela went underground, ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela found solace in a group of friends who kept the struggle fires burning in the ’60s.

Phillip Matthews’ humble creamish house, No 8272 in Maseko Street, became the nerve centre for all the ANC’s underground activities and stopover for Umkhonto weSizwe recruits in transit.

And Mandela spent stolen time here with his young wife and their two little children, Zenani and Zindzi.

Before he disappeared, Mandela instructed his friend, political ally and owner of the house, Phillip, to groom Winnie for politics. Matthews’ wife, Rebecca Nkoane-Matthews, looked after Zenani and Zindzi when their mother was away.

“When Winnie was alone, we could not abandon her,” said Barbara Matthews-Manthata, Phillip’s daughter.

“She was still a young woman when Nelson went underground and was later arrested.

“While underground, Madiba used to hide here and frequently met Winnie in my parents’ bedroom.”

The house became a beehive of activity with Mandela’s fellow comrades, such as Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Barney Ngakane, and Nthato Motlana, briefing the group on politics.

The smartly dressed comrades held meetings and organised night parties – and invited their equally well-dressed wives to the house to cook and dance.

The apartheid authorities never suspected any of the activities – until it was decided to move the group’s activities to Rivonia, where security services swooped, resulting in a number of the leaders being imprisoned on Robben Island. Phillip Matthews served 12 years on the island.

Under Matthews, the Orlando West house became the nerve centre of the ANC underground network that he led.

When Winnie joined him, they turned the place first into a recruitment centre and then a stopover and a hideout for Umkhonto weSizwe recruits.

NOW: From left, Jack Mathews Nkoane, Tom Manthata, Brass Hlabangane and Barbra Mathews Manthata speaks to The Citizen in Orlando East in Johannesburg, 9 April 2017, about the life of the struggle icon Winnie Mandela. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

Phillip’s son, Jackie Nkoane, was introduced to underground activism and worked closely with Winnie. His task was to be a courier of MK recruits to the neighbouring countries and, when they returned, to transport them to hit soft targets such as power pylons.

“My father shared his pension money to feed, accommodate and transport the cadres,” Jackie said.

Phillip mentored not only Madikizela-Mandela but also groomed the then 17-year-old Jacob Zuma, who came all the way from KwaZulu-Natal.

When Mandela shared his famous underground M-Plan with Matthews he, in turn, introduced it to the Orlando community.

The Mandela Plan, as it was known, became the ANC’s struggle strategy blueprint up to 1994.

Prior to the 1976 student uprising, some of the members served in the Soweto Committee of Ten, led by Motlana, and later the Soweto Civic Association (SCA), founded by Thom Manthata, Barbara’s husband.

The SCA worked closely with Soweto students’ movement leaders such as Tsietsi Mashinini, Khotso Seatlholo and Dan Montsisi.

“Winnie was a different social worker – she would take orphans from the local orphanage to teach the community about them,” Barbara said.

Jackie Nkoane said when cadres were attacked by security forces and activists shot, Winnie was always the first to jump and go.

“I have yet to see a social worker of her calibre in South Africa,” Nkoane said.

Barbara described Madikizela-Mandela as a “woman with a big heart”.

She was passionate about the plight of the destitute families and attended to former Robben Island prisoners and MK cadres who struggled to make ends meet.

According to Nkoane, “Mama Winnie”, as she was known, was a shoulder to cry on and a guide to the township youth in their political and economic struggles.

“When we fought with stones against the police who carried guns, we did not retreat because Mama Winnie gave us spirit to go forward. She was our role model.”

Another product of the Orlando West community-based struggles, Solomzi David Ntwana, a former MK member, played a vital role alongside Madikizela-Mandela in the underground work.

He took up arms at the age of 14 and later trained in the Soviet Union and East Germany – but Ntwana, who is still called by his MK name “Brass Hlabangani”, spent a short stint as courier of ANC documents from Swaziland to Matthew’s house.

“I got sick and tired of carrying those papers and told the old man that I want a gun to fight the system,” he said.

Brass, together with his mother, Eunice Nomonde Ntwana, once smuggled Winnie’s two children through the Oshoek border post to go and study at the Catholic Our Lady of Sorrows and St Marks schools in Swaziland.

Eunice and Winnie, who were friends and comrades, were once detained together at John Vorster Square.

Thom Manthata became even closer to the Mandelas when Mandela asked him to walk him and Chris Hani from house to house in Soweto to greet people after his release from jail in 1990.

And when Madikizela-Mandela was appointed as chairperson of the Ministerial Sanitation Task Team in 2011, she invited Manthata to serve in the team.

“She saw me as a leader, rather than herself as a leader. If you are an elected leader, she would humble herself to you. She always had high respect for a local leader and would always call him or her ‘my leader’.”

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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