Mandela Fires Estranged Wife

JOHANNESBURG, MARCH 27 -- A pained-looking President Nelson Mandela fired his estranged wife, Winnie, from his cabinet today but made clear he hoped the dismissal would not mean the end of her often flamboyant political career.

Mandela took the step following a month in which she lurched from one political crisis to another, some involving allegations of shady business dealings, others involving her sharp, public and ever more defiant criticism of the government she served.

"This decision has been taken both in the interest of good government and to ensure the highest standards of discipline among leading officials of the government," an apparently weary Mandela told reporters as a courier simultaneously delivered the bad news by letter to Winnie Mandela's office.

Although she was sacked as deputy minister of arts, culture, science and technology -- a minor cabinet position -- Mandela, 60, remains an elected member of Parliament for the African National Congress. She also will keep her job, at least for the time being, as national president of the ANC Women's League.

Mandela's fiery brand of radical politics has given her a base of support in some impoverished black townships and squatter areas, but the long-anticipated firing nonetheless drew support across South Africa's broad political spectrum.

On the black left, the ANC, the Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions all endorsed the dismissal; on the white right, the National Party and the Freedom Front supported the move. And on the white liberal center, the Democratic Party was ecstatic.

Only one left-wing party, the Pan Africanist Congress, raised concerns that the firing showed the government was intolerant of dissent. Winnie Mandela had no immediate comment.

South Africa is a society in which blacks and whites share few cultural attributes. One of these is an innate respect for authority; another is male domination. In such a society, Winnie Mandela paid the price for having been seen as insubordinate to her husband, boss and president.

Her descent toward dismissal began last month when she made a speech at a funeral in which she criticized the government for "bending over backwards" to appease whites at the expense of blacks. President Mandela was reportedly furious. He demanded she write an apology -- which she did, but only on the second try. Her first letter was rejected as too equivocal; the second had to be drafted for her by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki.

She then took part in a series of cultural events in West Africa, defying orders by the president that she not leave the country. While she was gone, it became clear why he wanted her here; 40 policemen conducted a daylong raid of her home and office, seeking evidence that she was involved in a kickback scheme on government housing projects.

Initially, that raid seemed like a fatal blow, but the investigation quickly came unglued. Last week, a judge threw out the police search warrants as improperly drawn. A triumphant Mandela sought to turn the police operation to her benefit, depicting the "Rambo-style" raid as reminiscent of the worst years of apartheid-era repression.

But her days in government were numbered. She already had alienated a key component of her political base; 10 senior board members of the ANC Women's League had resigned last month after she proceeded with a questionable business deal in the league's name without gaining the board's approval.

The announcement of her firing was delayed until today so it would not interfere with a week-long visit by the Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. This past weekend, sensing her end in government, she delivered a parting shot, blasting the government for spending $700,000 to spruce up for the queen -- including buying "$1,400 tablecloths" -- while doing nothing to improve the lot of ordinary South Africans.

It is anybody's guess where her political fortunes will lead. She already has lost the support of some of her most prominent populist allies within the ANC, including Tokyo Sexwale, premier of the heavily populated Gauteng province around Johannesburg. "We loved you; don't abuse our love," he said.

The corruption investigation will continue and could bring further trouble, but Winnie Mandela has been in trouble with the law before. In 1991, she was convicted of kidnapping and of being an accessory to assault -- charges stemming from a 1988 incident in which members of her Soweto soccer club abducted and killed a 14-year-old boy whom they suspected of being a police informer. Many anti-apartheid leaders here turned against her as a result of that crime, and it is said that it, more than anything, led Mandela to separate from her in 1992.

But she bounced back from those travails and seems likely this time to retain a core support among the poorest of the poor, for whom her critique about the new government's failure to deliver rings all too true.

While some analysts were predicting today that she will keep up her populist attack on the government, one longtime observer had a different view. "She'll fire away for another week or two, then she'll be as demure as Mother Teresa while she quietly rehabilitates herself," predicted Tom Lodge, a political scientist. "That's what she's always done when she's been down in the past -- and it's always worked."