Professor Thuli Madonsela, former South African Public Protector and Law Trust Chair in Social Justice at Stellenbosch University (SU), speaks to Danny-B Smith and reflects on significant memories, motivations, meditation, mental health, and importantly — motherhood.
Childhood memories influence one’s future, maternal instincts are undeniable and the tragedies of death are inevitable. Frequent family outings on African safaris remind Professor Madonsela, former public protector, of the beauties and realities of the circle of life. The temporary time period we’re given to live life can be utilized in the way we choose to. Madonsela chooses perseverance, purpose, and pride.
Memorable moments
According to Madonsela, her parents who raised her in Soweto, were the two people who formed her worldview that encompasses “a combination of social justice and pure justice”.
She describes her father, Bafana Madonsela, as a “powerful justice crusader”.
Her father was an informal trader and told “marvelous stories about how he would push back against the magistrate [during Apartheid] and say ‘I’m trading without a license because your government is not giving me a license’”.
Madonsela attributes much of her inspiration to her mother, Nora Nomasonto Madonsela, a social worker and “midwife without the papers,” she says.
“If there was a conflict in the family, she was the person to go to,” says Madonsela.
According to Madonsela, her mother was a problem solver. She was caring, yet firm. For that reason, the book Jesus CEO reminded Madonsela of her mother, she adds. “Honestly, nobody who needed help, left the house without it,” says Madonsela.
Madonsela recalls a particular memory from the time period when she was working at the Department of Justice and had recently bought a new house. As a young professional, balancing one’s accounts can be tricky, she explains, especially when a new monthly expenditure item is added.
“I remember mentioning I was a little bit ‘broke’ and I didn’t expect my mother to give me money, for goodness sake, she’s a pensioner,” Madonsela exclaims. After her mother had left back to Soweto, Madonsela woke up the next morning with a R20 note from her mother under her pillow, she says.
“R20 those days could do a lot,” she says and laughs.
Madonsela said that this is an annual event that she always looks forward to.
“It’s one place where we find these supercharged young persons that are changing the world in unparalleled ways,” says Madonsela.
PHOTO: Supplied
Motivation and frustration
As a public protector, Madonsela learned that a maternalistic approach or a parent approach has to be patriarchal, she said, and in the workplace, one of the best ways to lead is with an egalitarian approach.
“Having a title doesn’t make you more knowledgeable, it just gives you the power to coordinate wisdom and knowledge, and [then] channel it in a direction…,” she says.
According to Professor Nicola Smit, Dean of the Faculty of Law, as a result of Madonsela’s efforts, attention has been drawn to social justice principles and challenges, which require a “multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving”.
“She’s an innovative thinker, there’s always a solution,” said Sesona Ralarala, LLM student and research assistant for the law trust chair in social justice.
“I knew my calling was justice when I finished high school and applied for a scholarship to study,” Madonsela says.
In her motivational essay for this scholarship, she remembers saying she wants to be given the scholarship to change the law and make it just.
Madonsela is selfless, consistent, and personifies lady justice, says Diane Gahiza, project co-ordinator for the Law Trust Chair in Social Justice.
“It’s really justice that has driven my engagement with humanity and my choice of career,” she says.
According to Madonsela, the thing that frustrates her most in life is in fact injustice.
“Any form of injustice requires me to practice extreme amounts of self-management,” she says with a smile.
“We can drop the ball when investigating corruption and probably get away with it, but do it with your Gogo Dlamini, (a typical grandmother who was wronged by the state) and I would flip” Madonsela warns. She has always had the utmost respect for the elderly, her mother in particular.
Mother Madonsela
“Motherhood is the greatest responsibility, the most challenging and rewarding task,” says Madonsela.
After Madonsela’s former partner, the father of her children, had passed away, she became a single mother. According to Madonsela, what followed was a single income and a single source of emotional support to her two children, Wenzile Madonsela Msimang and Mbusowantu Madonsela.
Having to play both parental roles was “really tough,” she says.
“You collaborate in raising children and you compensate on each other’s strengths and weaknesses [in parenting] and when my partner was gone I had to do all of that by myself,” she explains.
Madonsela says she’s grateful to have had a “village,” consisting of her sisters, one of which later passed on approximately ten years after her partner did.
According to Madonsela, her daughter Wensile used the term ‘deputy mothers,’ to describe members of this “village”. Two of Madonsela’s close friends in particular included Suzie and Advocate Xoli Maduna.
“They could provide her with physical and emotional support and could also deputize for me at parental events,” she added.
Mothers and daughters have the strongest possible bond, but given that, there are often “explosions,” she says.
Although a mother-daughter dynamic comes with its challenges, Madonsela is “very tight” with her daughter, Wenzile who studied LLB. “Perhaps she has a little more of me than what she would like to admit,” Madonsela says with a smile.
“Our bond becomes stronger, as my daughter has become a mother,” she says.
Wenzile is an independent, authentic person who advocates for mental health because she herself has struggled with it, says Madonsela.
“It is not by size or outward appearance that we succeed; it is by striving that we succeed. You were made perfectly for a specific purpose,” says Nomkhosi Owl, a character in Melo’s Kingdom.
PHOTO: supplied
Mourning
Madonsela and her children experienced too much tragedy in a short time-span, and it impacted them, she says.
“About six people died within a short period of time and all of them, towards the end, stayed at our house,” she says.
Madonsela’s mother passed away in 1997, her partner and father in 1998, followed by her sister and best friend.
“The deaths in my family may have created a wall in my heart,” she says.
After this turbulent time period, Madonsela went to a spiritual retreat called Turning Point.
Meditation and mindfulness
A lack of spiritual grounding contributes to poor mental health, says Madonsela.
Taking responsibility for one’s own joy, including her own, is something that she has always encouraged.
“When I walk alone, especially in the estate, and meditate at the same time, that’s the best,” she says.
Being a mother and working on mental health are two things that she feels gives one perspective, she explains.
“Covid-19 forced me to get out of my comfort zone,” says Madonsela. Navigating SunLearn, SU’s online teaching and learning platform, was one of the biggest challenges for Madonsela, who was used to being assisted when she might’ve required it.
As an academic at heart, she reads and writes a lot, but Madonsela says that she now recognises the importance of grabbing an opportunity from the get-go, enabling her to grow, despite potentially being out of her comfort zone.
*Please note that the journalist who wrote this article is affiliated with the Law Trust Chair at Stellenbosch University by managing the chair’s Instagram page.