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Mbeki’s mom launches biography

“U-MAMA Mbeki”, President Mbeki’s mother, was honoured at the launch of her biography at the Constitutional Court on Saturday on International Women’s day.

Titled Epainette Nomaka Mbeki: A Humble Journey On Her Footprints, the biography is the brainchild of writer and photographer Thobeka Zazi Ndabula and co-writer, City Press Editor Mathatha Tsedu.

“When I met U-Mama I was truly humbled. I felt there was a need for a book that focused on her life and impressive achievements. She is a remarkable woman who has suffered huge hardships, but has always given back to the community. She really is an unsung heroine,” said Ndabula.

Ninety-two years old and still living in Dutywa in the Eastern Cape, Mrs Mbeki arrived on Saturday wearing a simple, traditional brown dress and was welcomed by a group of women singing traditional songs.

“Please read that book. It is a book written by an old lady who has lived through a number of governments,” said Mrs Mbeki.

“This is a very wonderful day for me but let’s stop talking about myself ... that’s not proper.

“I want somebody else and somebody else and somebody else to do what Thobeka has done,” she said, referring to Ndabula, who “is a South African, who wrote a book about South Africans”.

Chief Justice Pius Langa welcomed guests including President Thabo Mbeki, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and former Education Minister Kader Asmal.

“It’s quite nice to make a speech when the president is here and he is not the man of the moment,” Langa said, laughing.

“It is appropriate that we are here today celebrating the life of our guest of honour on International Women’s Day. The organisers were very correct to have it on this day and in this place (Constitutional Court) because it stands for freedom, justice and human rights ... in a court that celebrates happiness.”

“My mother is ungovernable,” said the president, referring to his mother’s penchant for bucking the rules. “I was worried that she would say something embarrassing,” he said.

“Thank you, Mama.” President Mbeki lauded his mother, calling her one of a generation that had built an extraordinary house.

“We should not do things to destroy this extraordinary house that they have built,” said Mbeki in tribute to his mother and to generations that had come before. — Sapa

Battling ban on women drivers

Wajiha Huwaidar, a leading activist in a campaign to allow women to get behind the wheel in the desert kingdom, confirmed yesterday that it was her in the video, posted on Saturday.

“Women can drive in the countryside. There is no problem with that.

“Some women do the school run every day without being obstructed,” she claimed. “What is important is to allow women to drive in urban areas.” — Sapa-AFP

History and now ‘herstory’

Speaking while unveiling the Taiwan National Women’s Hall in Taipei, she said: “Usually people think history is the story of men, hence the word ‘history’, but in future there should also be the story of women, ‘herstory’, and when the two words are combined, they become ‘human story’,” she said.

The Taiwan National Women’s Hall occupies one floor of a building in downtown Taipei. — Sapa-DPA

Philippine women march

Using steel fences wrapped with barbed-wire, police blocked the protesters on a bridge close to the Malacanang Palace in central Manila.

The marchers carried red and purple banners, proclaiming “Oust Gloria” and chanted “Gloria, out now” as they tried to cross the bridge, scene of many violent confrontations between police and protesters. — Sapa-AP

Mother’s determination sparks action

A MOTHER who refused to allow police to dismiss her daughter’s death as a drowning accident learned yesterday that police in the Indian resort state of Goa had detained three men in connection with the British teenager’s murder.

A fresh autopsy at the weekend on 15-year-old Scarlette Keeling, whose partially naked body was found last month on a beach, concluded she was murdered and did not drown as local police initially insisted, putting pressure on local authorities to move quickly.

“We are likely to formally arrest all these people by evening,” Goa police official Bosco George said.

The three men, all Indians, were being interrogated, said another police officer, adding that police were searching for four more men.

Senior Goa police official Kishan Kumar denied allegations by Fiona MacKeown, Keeling’s mother, that authorities had initially tried to hush up the murder.

“Police never failed in their duty. They were right on the track,” said Kumar.

MacKeown pointed to the large numbers of bruises on her daughter’s body to bolster her call for a second examination after an earlier autopsy concluded the girl drowned in the choppy Arabian Sea.

The first autopsy found only five bruises on Keeling’s body, but Saturday’s examination discovered as many as 50, with at least half of them believed to have been inflicted before she died. The autopsy panel did not confirm rape but said some of the injuries indicated sexual assault, a Times of India report said yesterday.

MacKeown said the findings vindicated her suspicions.

“We have been saying this since day one,” she told reporters late on Saturday. “In my heart I knew that she was murdered.” Local politicians have also queried the police, noting that an officer who initially investigated the case had been suspended for covering up a murder four years ago. — Sapa-AFP