Against All Odds

ZOLEKA MANDELA’S battle against BREAST CANCER has not been her most difficult life challenge. Madiba’s granddaughter shares her personal struggles with abuse, addiction and loss, and how surviving illness has enabled her to heal many wounds

- Edwain Steenkamp

A quote from her famous grandfather, Nelson Mandela, features prominently on Zoleka’s website: ‘The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.’ The words are a constant source of inspiration for the 37-year-old, who although born into one of the most famous families in the world, has had a life that is far from a fairy tale.

Zoleka (who is the daughter of Zindzi Mandela) launched her tell-all memoir, When Hope Whispers, in 2013. Her revelations shocked South Africa. But the Zoleka I meet on a fresh, spring morning in Johannesburg is not the hard or aloof survivor one might expect. She is all smiles and hugs for the team that has been assembled to photograph her and it’s almost unimaginable to reconcile this gregarious and warm woman with the one she exposed in the pages of her book.

Zoleka endured years of sexual and physical abuse as a child. She fell pregnant while still at school and tumbled into a life dominated by drug and alcohol addiction, and turbulent and volatile relationships. She survived a suicide attempt where she tried to set herself on fire due to a drug-induced psychotic breakdown. She lost two of her children; her 13-year-old daughter Zenani died tragically in a car accident in 2010, and her son Zenawe was born prematurely and died when he was two days old. Her book also documents her battles with her health – she was diagnosed with stage-two breast cancer at the tender age of 32.