Johannesburg: In his workshop stocked with piles of fabric and sewing machines, Sonwabile Ndamase is proud that the Madiba shirts he designed for Nelson Mandela 30 years ago endure as a legacy of South Africa's first democratically elected leader. Worn untucked and without a jacket, the loose Madiba shirts remain a favourite among South African politicians, making a statement 10 years after Mandela's death. Madiba is the clan name by which Mandela is known in South Africa.
Ndamase's clients include South Africa's current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as his predecessors, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. The country's political and business elite -- including ministers, government spokesmen and local politicians -- regularly place orders. Even former US president Bill Clinton and boxing great Mike Tyson have a Madiba shirt.
"Anybody who wants to live a Mandela legacy or who wants to live Mandela ethos in life, guess what they are doing? They will go and pick up Madiba shirts," Ndamase told AFP. The jovial 64-year-old designer recalls when he was contacted by Winnie Mandela soon after the apartheid government released her husband from prison in 1990. Having spent 27 years in jail, the hero of the fight against white-minority rule and South Africa's soon-to-be president needed new clothes.
Ndamase met Mandela in his home Johannesburg's Soweto. "He started to tell me that he wanted something that could look conservative enough for him to go and address the captains of industry a.
