Qunu residents still bitter

AS THE world remembers one of the world’s most revered global icons in Nelson Mandela this week, residents in his home village of Qunu are still bitter at not being given  a  chance to bid him a proper goodbye.

Mandela was buried in Qunu on December 15 last year.

In an emotional interview with the Daily Dispatch on the eve of the commemoration of his death this week, Qunu chief Nokwanele Balizulu blew the lid on what she and her subjects had to endure in the build up to the icon’s funeral.


“We were treated like dogs and made to feel as if we were guilty of something,”  Balizulu said, as she broke down into tears.

“We didn’t want to be VIPs but what is painful is that we were not even allowed to come anywhere near his body. It’s not like we were going to steal his body.

“Our biggest regret is that we never got a chance to say a proper goodbye to him.”

Some parts of the N2 and roads in Qunu were cordoned off in the build-up to the funeral, with villagers  who owned cars also battling to access their homes.

Even on the day of the funeral, many villagers had not been accredited to attend the funeral.

“From the first day they [government officials] were here, we were treated like outcasts.”

Balizulu said Madiba’s funeral was just like a private affair and only a selected “rich and famous” were allowed to attend.

But her face suddenly lights up when she talks about the great man himself and some of the hilarious stories he used to share with the villagers when he visited Qunu.

“He used to tell us how they would steal pigs as young boys in the village,” she said. “He knew people by their names and would walk around the village asking how everyone was doing. He was truly a great man and we miss him.”

Some of Madiba’s former employees at his Qunu house, like cleaner and gardener Nkosini Bida and Vukile Khwatsha, a gardener, said they missed their Tatomkhulu. Both men said they were battling to make ends meet after they were retrenched following his death.

However, they still  do get called by the family to  work whenever there are important family gatherings.