I found this story amusing.  Enjoy!
By RAVI NESSMAN
.c The Associated Press


JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - There has never been much love between
President Thabo Mbeki and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, but at least they were
civil.

Then came the Great Hat Controversy.

The battle of words in the two weeks since has exposed the barely concealed
dislike between the man who controls the country and the controversial woman
who commands many of its people's affections.

The dispute began June 16, when Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of beloved
former President Nelson Mandela and an anti-apartheid legend in her own
right, arrived late at a soccer stadium for the 25th anniversary
commemoration of the Soweto Uprising. The crowd began chanting her name,
interrupting a speech.

She walked onto the stage where Mbeki was sitting, put her hands on his
shoulders and bent down, apparently to give him a kiss on the cheek. Mbeki
lifted his left arm to block the kiss and push her away, knocking her black
African National Congress cap off in the process.

Mbeki, who is also president of the ANC, later said he was annoyed she had
interrupted the ceremony and come on the stage despite being directed
elsewhere.

Madikizela-Mandela, who is president of the ANC Women's League, said she had
not even been invited to the stadium, but chose to go so her absence would
not be ``misinterpreted.'' She came late because she was trapped behind
Mbeki's motorcade and approached him onstage, not for a kiss, but to request
a private chat, she said.

The ANC accused Madikizela-Mandela of ``behaving badly, flouting protocol and
disregarding the solemnness of the occasion.''

She shot back: ``The masses are still with me. I am the ANC.''

Though Madikizela-Mandela helped Mbeki succeed Mandela as president in 1999,
their personal styles strongly clashed.

``Winnie has the gift of gab, empathy with the people ... but she's also
disreputable and noisy and indiscreet,'' said Tom Lodge, professor of
political science at the University of the Witwatersrand. ``Thabo Mbeki is
exactly the opposite.''

Mbeki, exiled abroad during apartheid, often appears aloof and more
comfortable with business officials and world leaders than poor South
Africans. His popularity has fallen sharply since taking office, according to
opinion polls.

Madikizela-Mandela lived in the heart of the apartheid struggle. She was
repeatedly arrested, barred from speaking publicly, shot at in her home and
temporarily exiled to a remote township.

She remains widely popular among poor urban blacks and has become a mother
figure to the country's victims, holding grieving the mother's hand at a
child's funeral and meeting with the poor in squatter camps.

But neither leader is a stranger to controversy.

Madikizela-Mandela has been linked to killings, torture, assaults and arson
carried out by her bodyguards in the black township of Soweto in the late
1980s.

For his part, Mbeki, known to be hypersensitive to criticism, has been
accused of failing to deal with the AIDS crisis and ignoring the needs of the
poor.

Few appear to have angered Mbeki as often as Madikizela-Mandela.

In a scathing speech at a protest outside the international AIDS conference
last year, Madikizela-Mandela attacked the government's poor record on
fighting the deadly disease that afflicts 11 percent of South Africa's 43
million people.

``We have failed to take HIV/AIDS seriously,'' she told thousands of singing
supporters.

In January, a letter surfaced from Madikizela-Mandela to Deputy President
Jacob Zuma in which she repeated rumors Mbeki was a womanizer, said the
president had ``grievously maligned'' her and accused ANC officials of
persecuting her.

After the controversy, she accused the government of failing the country's
poor.

The ANC has launched an investigation into Madikizela-Mandela's behavior.

Political analyst Sipho Seepe cautioned the party to tread lightly with a
woman whose popular support could cause serious problems for Mbeki and other
party leaders.

``As controversial as she is, that does not change the fact that she is seen
as the people's leader, and I think she will always be a thorn in the flesh
of those who see themselves as the new party bosses,'' he said.

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