READER LETTER | Attack on AKA lacks humanity and dignity

When former first lady Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died, I insisted that she was not the mother of our nation. My view had nothing to do with her gender or the scandals that followed her but was solely based on the nature of her public position as someone who belonged to the public service as part of an elected ruling class.

When it comes to grief, we mourn with those who mourn. It does not matter if the person who died was known to be a good or bad person. Yet when I read the column by Malaika Mahlatsi in the Sowetan last week, I could not see a tormented young girl but a bitter black woman who, because of women's empowerment, sees the death of a man as a victory for gender equality.

Perhaps that is not a bad thing by itself, except that the deceased is the son of another woman, and had not yet been buried.

I have come to believe firmly that the empowerment of women in SA at the expense of black men is a big mistake, and that the focus on women’s power does not bring love and unity in a fragmented society of traumatised black men and women.

Rather, this nonsensical focus on gender specifics has produced morally hollow black feminists who despise the black male and see their fathers and sons as dogs.

Again, I do not care much how women hate men as it does not matter to me; but the moment a person has passed on, we should focus on the pain of the grieving and the dignity of the dead regardless of our emotions until at least the burial is complete.

What is clear though is that as a nation, and as Africans, we should never have given focus to this gender nonsense talk, we should have focused on our traditions and the complete human development of a dehumanised black race, as well as the faith which brought us this freedom but which is now a platform for feminists to insult the black men who died fighting for this freedom.

Khotso KD Moleko, Bloemfontein