The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, 81
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, prominent antiapartheid activist and ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, died in hospital yesterday at the age of 81.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela was married to Mr Mandela from 1958 to 1996
Her family said: “She kept the memory of her imprisoned husband Nelson Mandela alive during his years on Robben Island and helped give the struggle for justice in South Africa one of its most recognisable faces”.
However, Ms Madikizela-Mandela’s political activism was marred by her conviction in 1991 for kidnapping and assault, 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, Ms Madikizela-Mandela remained a venerated figure in the ruling African National Congress, which has led South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.
She was a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle who continued to tell the party “exactly what is wrong and what is right at any time”, said senior ANC leader Gwede Mantashe.
Nobel laureate and former archbishop Desmond Tutu, a periodic critic of the ruling party over the years, described Ms Madikizela-Mandela as “a defining symbol” of the fight against apartheid.
“She refused to be bowed by the imprisonment of her husband, the perpetual harassment of her family by security forces, detentions, bannings and banishment,” Mr Tutu said. “Her courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of activists.”
Ms Madikizela-Mandela had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year, according to her family.
They said they will release details of her memorial and funeral services when they are finalised.
The Mandela marriage, which survived decades of prison bars, dissolved with a formal separation in 1992 and divorce in 1996.
As the mother of two of Mr Mandela’s children, Ms Madikizela-Mandela and her ex-husband appeared to rebuild a friendship in his final years, before his death in 2013.