Mama Mbeki

Hootoksi Tyabji, Eastern Cape and Cape Town, August 2006

The morning of Wednesdey 16 August 2006 was bright, cold, crisp and beautiful. We piled into our tiny rented Ford Ka, ready and eager to face the adventures of the day. With Robert at the wheel, Mncdisi beside him, Nolwazi and I squashed in the back, we set off to visit Mnandi, the village farm where our friends lived and worked. They were very smartly dressed in identical green track suits, as Mncdisi had been the Headmaster of the village school where the staff and students were waiting to welcome us later that day!

It was to be an hour's drive, but on the way Nolwazi suggested that we stop off at Ngcingwane village to meet Epainette Mbeki and to visit her women’s development projects.

I was so excited! Imagine meeting the President's mother and a woman I had heard much about! Just this April she had been awarded a national honor, the Award of the Baobab for "her exceptional contribution to the economic upliftment of the underprivileged communities in the Eastern Cape and her commitment to the fight against apartheid." And here we were, nobody’s off the street, on our way to meet her.

We parked outside a little village shop where a friendly security guard chatted with Nolwazi while I darted in to see what I could buy! Matches, canned goods, toiletries and bric-a-brac. I later learned that this little shop had kept the Mbeki family afloat all through the difficult years of apartheid when her husband and other family members were languishing in jail.

The security guard told us that Mrs. Mbeki was in a meeting, but we were welcome to visit the projects. We walked behind the shop into two small rooms set across a courtyard from a tiny house. In the first we found a bunch of village ladies who were all busy sewing and making beautiful traditional bead necklaces. They were delighted to show us their work and immediately tried to sell me a traditional Xhosa outfit. They draped it, turban and all, and began clapping and cheering, thrilled by their transformation of me! We went out of the room arm in arm for a group photo, and just as we finished "the photo shoot, along came this little lady with a big smile! Through a large pair of glasses which dominated her face, we saw her eyes twinkling and the love she clearly held in her heart radiated outwards enveloping us all!

Ma Mofokeng as she is fondly called, welcomed and greeted us with a hug and led us to the second room where women were being taught to make things out of leather. She began her community service in 1937 and at 90 she is still at it, going about her work cheerfully with her indomitable smile!

When I mentioned she must be proud of her son, the President of South Africa, she frowned and slapped me on the back saying "Nothing to be proud of! He is just a man like any other! Go see him anytime!"

She was recently interviewed on Radio by Tim Modise who pressed her to say what advice she would give her son and she said "First, he should forget about himself, but he should respect, he should have self-respect, but forget about the ego. That's point number one. And be prepared to listen to the next man, no matter whether your ideas and his agree. But be prepared to listen to the next man." This was followed by a hearty laugh, her trademark!

As we were leaving her home, I thanked her and apologized for having visited without an appointment. Once again, she stopped in her tracks, patted me on the back and said, "Remember you are in Africa now where our doors are wide open and everyone is always welcomed." Shams-ud-din Muhammed Hafiz wrote "Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak, and act, as the most common man’ Ma Mofokeng perfectly epitomizes those words and our meeting with her, will forever, be imprinted on our hearts.

Update - Robert Tyabji, Shah ALam