Community of Brandfort relive Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's exile days

She would wake up every day at 5am, water her garden and do her laundry like everybody else in the dour Free State township of Majwemasweu .

This was routine for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela during her time under house arrest in the sleepy town of Brandfort.

She was exiled with her daughter Zindzi, and was only permitted one visitor at a time in a predominantly Sesotho speaking township.

"It was in the early evening of a winter's day when we heard a moving truck. It stopped in front of house number 802... then she stepped out," Norah Moahloli said, recalling Madikizela-Mandela's arrival.

Moahloli, 75, and Madikizela-Mandela struck a friendship which spanned 39 years.

They worked on
various projects which were aimed at improving the lives of the poor community.

"Nomzamo was a people's person. They thought that they were punishing her by dumping her here but she and the community flourished."

Moahloli, a retired teacher, described an incident when Madikizela-Mandela defiantly bought and distributed oranges to pupils even though her ban meant that she was only permitted to communicate with one person at a time.

However, under the bold exterior of an activist was a worried mother and a concerned wife.

"Nomzamo would talk about how it hurt her that the ban affected Zindzi as well.

"She said that her daughter could not play like other children because she was confined indoors," said Moaholi.

"She would greet anybody and everybody from her yard and sometimes the children would sing and pretend not to hear her because people were warned not to speak to her."

Most residents older enough remember her warmth and charity. Maki Moleloa, 69, said: "Mme Winnie would make us soup. We would all get together beans, vegetables and other things and she would cook for us.

"The police would constantly be watching her from a nearby hill but she always did what she could for those around her."

Activist and ANC Women's League member Bella Mokhutle, 65, described the projects Madikizela-Mandela managed in political exile.

"Through us she opened a centre where women could sew and knit clothes and blankets. This was a way for them to do something fulfilling with their time," Mokhutle said.

There were plans to turn the house that she was banished to into a museum. But after nearly R3-million spent by the Free State government on the project, the house still stands idle.