Winnie Mandela dies at 81 after illness

WINNIE Madikizela-Mandela, a prominent anti-apartheid activist and the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, has died at the age of 81.

Madikizela-Mandela was married to Nelson Mandela from 1958 to 1996.

Mandela was imprisoned throughout most of their marriage and Madikizela-Mandela’s own activism against the apartheid regime led to her being imprisoned for months and spending years under house arrest.

The couple, above right, were famously pictured walking hand in hand after Mandela was released from Victor prison in Cape Town, after 27 years in detention. Her political activism was marred by a kidnapping and assault conviction in 1991, for which she was fined. She faced these allegations again during the 1997 hearings before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel that investigated apartheid-era crimes. As a parliamentarian after South Africa’s first all-race elections, she was convicted of fraud. Still, she was widely venerated in South Africa for her role in fighting white minority rule. A family spokesman said she died peacefully yesterday afternoon following a long illness. THE husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British mother imprisoned in Iran, has called on Theresa May to intervene on the second anniversary of her arrest after the failure of efforts by Boris Johnson to release her.