Winnie: I would not exploit poor for own ends
>“It would be the most despicable thing to even suggest I would exploit the poor for my own selfish ends,” she said in the Pretoria Regional Court.
Madikizela-Mandela, president of the African National Congress Women’s League, was testifying in her defence. She and her financial adviser, Addy Moolman, have been charged with 60 counts of fraud and 25 of theft involving about £75,000 from a South African bank. They have denied the charges.
She said she had merely asked the bank “to assist people who did not have access to banks and financial houses to get loans”.
If convicted, Madikizela-Mandela, 64, could face 15 years in prison.
The prosecution alleges letters on the Women’s League letterhead bearing Madikizela-Mandela’s signature, were used to fraudulently obtain loans in the name of bogus Women’s League employees, including her daughter Zinzi.
Madikizela-Mandela testified she “had no idea” Moolman had submitted applications for loans to the bank with false information and unauthorised signatures. He never discussed the details of the loan applications with her, or with her daughter Zinzi, she said. She said she trusted Moolman and when he was arrested, arranged his bail.
“I believed in his innocence, that he was arrested wrongly,” she said.
Madikizela-Mandela’s personal secretary, Eunice Martins, who earlier testified for the prosecution, said the Women’s League president was the only one to benefit from the loan scheme. Madikizela-Mandela rejected this saying: “I consider that an insult”.
She said she wanted to help Martins who was in serious financial difficulty.
In 1991, Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of kidnapping and assault and sentenced to six years in prison, which was reduced to a fine on appeal.
An anti-apartheid hero, Madikizela-Mandela is popular with many poor urban blacks but within the ruling ANC party hierarchy she has faced stiff criticism.
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