Johannesburg - While the nation holds its collective breath, waiting for word on Nelson Mandela’s health, his extended family in Qunu in the Eastern Cape are preparing for a funeral.
Florence Mandela, a close relative to the country’s former statesman, died last week aged 96.
She was the wife of one of the sons of Madiba’s uncle Solomon.
On Monday, a big group of village men huddled round the Mandela family gravesite in Qunu, and later went to the homestead where Florence lived to discuss preparations for Saturday’s funeral with the family.
While the men and relatives sombrely went about their daily tasks, reluctant to comment on Mandela’s latest health scare, other villagers said they were pained by the news that he had been admitted to hospital, but were not ready to let him go.
At 10.30am on Monday, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said Mandela’s condition remained unchanged as serious but stable.
Nomishini Krexa, who lives in the village, said: “I ask myself, where will we be when he’s not around? I ask, what would we do here in Qunu, how would our lives be?
“Because of him we have grants so we can feed our children. We have toilets, we have electricity. We would like to let him go but we’re scared. He has done so much for us.”
Krexa said she would always have immense gratitude to Mandela for bringing her family together at a time when men lived in hostels at the mines where they worked.
The women were not allowed to live with their husbands and had to stay behind in the villages to look after the children.
“Before 1994, I couldn’t get inside the mines in Welkom to see my husband. We could only ever talk over the gates. After Tata was released, I could live with my husband in a room in the mines - like a real family. Tata really worked for us women who had husbands in the mines,” she said.
An elderly woman, who asked not to be identified, echoed Krexa’s sentiments that people feared that without Mandela, their rights wouldn’t be upheld.
“He gave us so many of our human rights… if he’s not here (not alive), it won’t be good. We are pained to see him in pain. It’s not nice seeing your loved one like that, but what are we saying he must stay for?” she asked.
Noamen Qhola, from Mvezo, the village where Mandela was born, asked: “What will we do if he isn’t here anymore?
“We ask nothing from anyone now, people can make their own living. We have grants to help our children, we have jobs too… even his grandson Mandla (Mandela) helps us and recruits many people to work in projects around the village… but the day Tata is gone, things may change,” Qhola said.
The Star contacted Mandela’s grandson, who is the chief in Mvezo. But he was on his way to visit a bereaved family in the village and declined to comment on his grandfather’s health, saying: “I can’t comment on things related to uTat’omkhulu (grandfather)”.
There was no activity outside Mandela’s homestead along the N2 - 30km from Mthatha - and the South African flag which is usually flying when he is at his rural home was down.
In Joburg, throngs of media lined the street outside Mandela’s Houghton home.
Mziwenkosi Tantsi clutched a framed picture that captured the time he met Madiba.
Tantsi said he never washed his hands for two weeks after this meeting because he was so amazed that he had touched the former president’s hand.
Tantsi worked for Mandela’s neighbours in Houghton as a driver for five years. In 2010, he got the chance to shake hands with his idol after meeting Madiba’s grandson, Ndaba Mandela.
“It was a dream come true to meet him. I touched his hand and didn’t wash (my hands) for two weeks,” Tantsi said.
The picture shows Tantsi wearing a Kaizer Chiefs shirt sitting next to Madiba on a couch in Madiba’s Houghton home.
Several photos were taken that day, but Tantsi framed this one because in the others, Madiba wasn’t smiling.
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