Annastasia Thula with her only surviving child, Noli Mboweni, and grandson Dumi.
Amazing woman has many stories to share
Annastasia Thula fills a room. Although her memory is not
what it once was, the 83-year-old is larger than life. She has a way of drawing
a person in with one look and leaving little doubt that she is a woman with a
past as powerful as her presence.
A resident of Rand Aid’s Ron Smith Care Centre in
Lyndhurst, Annastasia lived next door to Winne Mandela in her younger years,
and later was Nelson Mandela’s neighbour in Houghton. Both relationships were
close. It was Winnie who introduced Annastasia to her future husband, Gibson
Thula, popularly referred to as ‘Mr Gautrain’; and Madiba was a beloved second
grandfather to her grandchildren.
But Winnie and Madiba are only one part of Annastasia’s
story, which establishes her as a legend in her own right.
After a meaningful career as a nurse, Annastasia committed
her ‘retirement’ to uplifting her community. It was the 1980s and South Africa
was in turmoil. A state of emergency was in place and the apartheid government
used brutal methods to suppress the majority of South Africa’s population.
Thousands of people were arrested during this period of
time and many were tortured or killed. Education was in shambles.
Then a Soweto resident, Annastasia and fellow community
volunteer Agnes Gcwabaza decided they could not sit back and watch their
community destruct without doing what they could to alleviate the suffering.
They joined forces to form the Bophelo Impilo Community
Association and inspired other local women to get involved. The result was a
range of upliftment programmes, including crèches, saving schemes, food garden programmes
and support for the aged.
“There is no reason to be hungry when you have hands that
work and soil to plant in,” maintains Annastasia.
Teen pregnancies was one of the reasons why Annastasia and
Anges started crèches.
“Community women were trained in early childhood
development and basic hygiene and young moms could go back to school, knowing
their little ones were in safe hands,” says Annastasia.
Annastasia is passionate about education, believing it is
the key to changing one’s path, and so in the late 80s, she was again compelled
to act, this time against the sub-standard education offered in black schools. Many
teachers were not qualified, and Afrikaans and English were the mandatory
languages of instruction. Youngsters were refusing to go to school and growing
increasingly militant. Many young girls were falling pregnant and forsaking
their education because of ostracisation.
Anastasia and Agnes’ response was to start the Bophelo
Impilo Private School in 1989. It was initially housed in St Margaret Church in
Diepkloof but was given an old school building in Mayfair in 1991. Today,
nearly 30 years later, the school upholds its founding tradition of challenging
its learners to rise above their circumstances. The school has boarding
facilities, a successful soccer academy and maintains good academic results.
Lawyers, doctors, teachers, leaders and entrepreneurs are
proud Bophelo Impilo alma maters.
Challenging childhood
Annastasia grew up in difficult conditions. Her mother was
a domestic worker struggling to raise her children on her own and Annastasia
had to balance her studies with the responsibility of helping her mother make
ends meet.
While still in primary school, Annastasia was taught how to
brew African beer, which was sold to supplement the family’s income. The
practice was illegal, however, and the brewing drums had to be hidden in a
large outside coal and wood box. This clever concealment was no match for
Annastasia’s honesty, however. One day, when she was alone at home, the police
arrived and started searching for the beer. Little Annastasia helpfully told
them they were looking in the wrong place, before leading them to the coal box.
The contents of the drum were emptied out and as a result, the
family face a harder few weeks than normal.
“My grandmother was not educated,” shares Annastasia’s only
surviving child, Noli Mboweni. “However, she was very determined to do the best
she could for her family and was adamant that they all be properly educated. It
was her dream to see her children work in an office, with a pen behind the ear,
which in those days was a symbol of success.”
Her vision paid off, with her descendants all well-educated
and successful.
Noli studied teaching and worked as a science educator for
10 years before venturing into the world of business. To supplement her BA in
education, she enrolled for a Management Advancement Programme at the Wits
Business School. This was followed by a number of short courses, including
corporate governance at the Gordon Institute of Business Science and various
project management courses offered by the Institute of Directors in Southern
Africa.
Today, she is regarded as one of the country’s
inspirational women and has achieved great success in the corporate
environment. Among others, she is a shareholder in Bombela, the consortium that
developed the Gautrain; is the CEO of Vela International and a director and
shareholder in Sun International’s Afrisun Gauteng.
Just like her mother, she is a community builder and runs a
mentorship programme for women on balancing work and family and maintains a
bursary fund.
The children of Noli and medical doctor husband Lincoln –
Dumi, Vela and Nene – are doing equally well, one as a doctor, like her father,
and the other two in the corporate world. A great-granddaughter who lives in
London is the youngest of Annastasia’s clan.
Madiba, Winnie and the Thulas
Noli shares how intertwined her parents’ lives were with
Winnie and Nelson. “My Dad and Winnie were social workers. Winnie had a
boyfriend but Nelson had his eye on her and so my Dad arranged that Nelson, who
had a car, would pick Winnie up and give her a lift. Their relationship
developed from there.”
Winnie returned the favour, setting out to fix Gibson up
with her trainee nurse neighbour, a young Annastasia. Her matchmaking worked
well and Gibson and Annastasia enjoyed a wonderful life together until his
death in 2016.
When Noli was married 29 years ago, it was Winnie who
received lobola on behalf of the family and when Velani, one of the Thula’s
children, was shot by the apartheid police in 1988, at the age of 21, Winnie
played a pivotal role in the funeral.
Later in their life, Annastasia and Gibson were happy
neighbours to Madiba in Houghton and the two sets of grandchildren spent much
of their time playing at Tata Madiba’s house.
Noli remembers a time when her children went next door for
a playdate and when she went to fetch them, they ran upstairs and hid from
their mother in Madiba’s bedroom. He was president of South Africa at the time,
and they instinctively knew that Noli would not follow them into the
president’s most private space.
She went home. A little later, Mandela himself phoned Noli
and asked that she bring pajamas over. “But Tata, we had not planned on a
sleepover,” she argued, to which he replied, “Bring over their PJs or I will go
to Killarney to buy some. He always got his way,” she chuckles.
She recalls another time when her son Velani and one of Nelson
Mandela’s grandsons (the son of daughter Zindzi) were having a joint 10th birthday party at McDonald’s
Cresta. Mandela was in Cape Town for Parliament but insisted that he would fly
home in time to attend.
“We had a group of 60 very
excited children waiting for Tata to arrive, so we could start. When he arrived
at Wonderboom, his bodyguard phoned to say that they were on their way. The
estimated time of arrival came and went, with Madiba not arriving. Eventually
we phoned the bodyguard and asked what the delay was,” recalls Noli.
It turned out Madiba was
indeed there, but outside interacting with all McDonald’s young customers. “He
was signing autographs, kissing babies and posing for photos while we were
being driven crazy by a roomful of children!”
Her last memory of Madiba is
bittersweet. “He was being cared for at home by a team of doctors and nurses
and heard that my son Velani – by then all grown up – would be visiting.
“I had an important business
meeting to attend but collected Velani and drove him to Madiba’s house. A
hospital bed had been placed under a tree in his garden and he was sitting on
the edge of it, as ramrod straight as ever. When I hugged him hello, he pointed
at my car key and said, ‘I see you are driving a Mercedes’.
“He then asked to see the key.
He took it and promptly put it in his pocket, all the while chatting to Velani.
Eventually I was desperately late but did not know how to retrieve my key.
“Then Mike, one of his
favourite bodyguards, whispered to me, ‘You know you have been hijacked, right?
Madiba heard that you had to leave, and he purposely took your key’.
“Two hours later, it was time
for Madiba to receive medical treatment and I managed to leave. Two days later,
he passed away. In retrospect, I am so blessed to have spent that time with him
in his last days.”
Noli attributes much of her success to her amazing mom, who
remains a powerful force in the family.
When Noli and grandson Dumi arrived at Ron Smith Care
Centre for an unscheduled visit one afternoon in August, Annastasia’s already
animated face lit up even more. Beautifully made up, with her face virtually
unlined and a smile never far, it is easy to see why Annastasia has had such a
great impact on her family and community.
She speaks with great conviction and within the shortest
time of meeting her, it is evident that her life has been guided by her faith,
her family and her unwavering desire to make a difference. “She is a force of nature,” says Noli.
Snapshots of Annastasia's life - both happy and sad moments captured:
