MAKHUDU SEFARA | A friendship forged in fire that was scuppered by R790,000

Ismail Ayob, who died this week, was much more than just Nelson Mandela’s lawyer at a time when the jailed “terrorist” could not afford legal fees. He was, Mandela wrote in Long Walk to Freedom, the “lifeblood” of the anti-apartheid movement.

While many will remember Ayob’s acrimonious battle with Mandela over a sum of R790,000 that he disbursed to Mandela’s children without the concurrence of fellow trustees George Bizos and Wim Trengove, there’s much more to Ayob. He was a “vital conduit”, a trusted link between the ANC in Lusaka and Mandela on Robben Island at a time when furthering the aims of a so-called terrorist organisation could lead to torture and summary execution.

In happier times, as we journalists are wont to say, Mandela described Ayob as the glue that ensured unity of purpose between those in jail and those in exile, countering the wedge the apartheid system tried to drive between ANC leaders. Mandela told us that he and Ayob circumvented stringent security monitoring by using “camouflage compartments” in book covers to insert handwritten “micro scripts”.

To alert Mandela to search for secret messages in a book, Ayob would, for example, say: “I bring you greetings from Zwengendaba,” a code that suggested he was conveying notes from Oliver Tambo or other party luminaries. Ayob’s briefcase, which was to some extend off-limits for security checks due to attorney-client privilege, was also used to ferry messages that were hidden in the internal lining. And through “practised accidental movements”, they developed ways of exchanging messages. One that was smuggled out contained Mandela’s rejection of an offer by PW Botha to release him if he “unconditionally rejected violence as a political instrument” — and was read out by Zindzi Mandela at a rally in Soweto in 1985.

Ayob was the go-to guy for activists who got into trouble. He represented the family of SACP member Ahmed Timol at the 1971-1972 inquest into his brutal death at the hands of his police captors; others he helped include Hélène Passtoors, the Belgian-Dutch activist linked to Umkhonto we Sizwe, and the family of Solomon Mahlangu, who unsuccessfully fought to save him from the gallows.

The point is that at great risk to himself, Ayob had the courage to pursue justice and the ideals that now form the basis of our constitution. Trained as a barrister in London because of race limitations in South Africa, he could have focused on making money for himself and his family. But this hero intentionally chose a path less travelled.

Trained as a barrister in London because of race limitations in South Africa, he could have focused on making money for himself and his family. But this hero intentionally chose a path less travelled

This great journey of justice, courage, integrity and unwavering commitment to the struggle was sullied by a dispute that, in my view, was not worth the paper it was written on. Ayob said Mandela had given him verbal instructions to disburse R790,000 to several of his children and grandchildren.

There is no dispute that this was done. In other words, no claim is made that Ayob used the funds for himself or his family. Mandela’s children confirmed they had received funds through Ayob from their father. But Mandela, whose memory was already fickle, claimed he had not given an instruction for the funds to be so disbursed. Trusts are run according to rules but Ayob had not followed them. Ayob, Mandela decided, needed to pay back the R790,000. He briefed lawyers.

What followed was ugly and bitter, almost like a falling out between lovers. It was unseemly and undignified. Mandela was petty and unforgiving to a man who had risked his life not only to help him communicate with Tambo and the ANC leadership, but had helped his family manage their legal and financial affairs pro bono. Ayob did not have to risk his life or endanger his wife Zamila and son Zayd for Mandela, yet he did.

Mandela, our country’s beacon of reconciliation, was prepared to reconcile with people who tortured, killed and buried struggle activists in shallow graves — but was unwilling to overlook a R790,000 payment to the Mandela family that was not done by the book. If Ayob had stolen or misdirected the funds for his own benefit, part of me would grudgingly understand Mandela’s anger. Yet there was no dispute about whether Mandela’s heirs received his money. Was Mandela’s idea that Ayob must sue and try to recover the funds from his children and grandchildren?

It’s unfathomable that an icon like Mandela could allow R790,000 to sully such a rich history of struggle and selfless comradeship. It is unthinkable that the people responsible for killing the Cradock Four, Chris Hani, Steve Biko and Sabelo Phama, and for the incarceration of Elias Motsoaledi for 26 years, and many others, were deserving of forgiveness and reconciliation in Mandela’s eyes — but Ayob was not.

In a strictly legal sense Ayob may have been in the wrong but was the dispute worth this much acrimony? Mandela routinely received substantial donations just by getting on the phone to the CEOs of big firms. Does the R790,000 not pale in comparison when stacked against the money he received from businessman and art publisher Ross Calder, who marketed the “Touch of Mandela” project, the “My Robben Island” exhibition and other schemes that reportedly raised hundreds of millions?

If regard is had to what Ayob did for Mandela and how Mandela was willing to forgive those who committed the worst crimes against freedom fighters, the heartless episode of the R790,000 really beggars belief.