Nelson Mandela visits his former lodging in Alexandra

Nelson Mandela paid a visit to a house where he rented a room as a young man

May 27, 2009 – Nelson Mandela today returned to a house where he rented a room as a young man when he first came to Johannesburg in 1941.

The house in Alexandra outside Johannesburg was owned by John Madzeka Xhoma, from Cradock in the Eastern Cape, who ran a transport business and owned two other properties. He and his wife Harriet and their children shared the house while Mr Mandela rented a room in the back yard. John Xhoma passed away in 1952 and his wife Harriet in 1971.

On Wednesday Mr Mandela paid a visit to the Xhoma’s granddaughter Gladys Xhoma who still lives in the house. She was a little girl of about 10 when Madiba lived there and he used to send her to the shops on errands.

Her daughter Nomalizo, 37, an environmental educator, who was also at the meeting, had previously met Mr Mandela when he briefly visited the house in 2003.

Gladys Xhoma, 73, last saw Mr. Mandela in 1953 in Johannesburg when she went to his law office to get legal advice from him.

Also at the meeting were Gladys Xhoma’s eldest daughter Nomathemba, and her two sisters Nozipho Mabuya and Zodwa Tlale.

“He’s our father. He’s a living saint,” said Tlale, a Catholic who said she could only compare the experience with having met the Pope.

While he was living at the Xhomas Mr Mandela worked as an articled clerk with attorneys Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman while completing his BA at the University of South Africa (Unisa).

There he earned £2 a month, of which he paid 13 shillings and four pence for the room. He welcomed sharing Sunday lunches with the family in the main house.

The Xhoma home was Mr Mandela’s second in Alexandra, he had briefly lodged with Reverend J Mabutho. In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom Mr Mandela wrote: “Alexandra occupies a treasured place in my heart. It was the first place I lived away from home.”

About the Xhoma house he wrote: “In order to make ends meet, Mr Xhoma, like so many other residents of Alexandra, rented rooms to boarders. He had built a tin-roofed room at the back of his property, no more than a shack, with a dirt floor, no heat, no electricity, no running water. But it was a place of my own and I was happy to have it.”

After leaving Alexandra Mr Mandela made his home in Orlando, Soweto.