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| Winnie Mandela, the ex-wife of South African anti-apartheid fighter and former president Nelson Mandela, died on Apr 2, 2018 at the age of 81, her spokesman said. (Photo: AFP/Gulshan Khan) |
JOHANNESBURG: Winnie Mandela, the former wife of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, died on Monday (Apr 2) aged 81, triggering an outpouring of tributes to one of the country's defining and most divisive figures.
She died in
a Johannesburg hospital after a long illness, family spokesman Victor Dlamini
said in a statement.
Winnie
Mandela, who was married to Nelson Mandela for 38 years, played a high-profile
role in the struggle to end white-minority rule but her place in history was
stained by controversy and accusations of violence.
"It is
with profound sadness that we inform the public that Mrs Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela passed away at the Netcare Milpark Hospital, Johannesburg,
South Africa on Monday," said a statement issued by her family.
"She
died after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of hospital since
the start of the year. She succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday
afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones."
Leading the
tributes, anti-apartheid campaigner and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu described
Winnie Mandela as "a defining symbol" of the struggle against
oppression.
"She
refused to be bowed by the imprisonment of her husband, the perpetual
harassment of her family by security forces, detentions, bannings and
banishment," he said.
"Her
courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of
activists."
In the
ruling African National Congress (ANC), head of policy Jeff Radebe described
her as "an icon of the revolutionary struggle."
LIVES APART
Most of
Winnie's marriage to Nelson was spent apart, with Nelson imprisoned for 27
years, leaving her to raise their two daughters alone and to keep alive his
political dream under the repressive white-minority regime.
But her
reputation came under damaging scrutiny in the twilight years of apartheid
rule.
In 1986,
she was widely linked to "necklacing", when suspected traitors were
burnt alive by a petrol-soaked car tyre being put over their head and set
alight.
In 1990 the
world watched when Nelson Mandela finally walked out of prison - hand in hand
with Winnie.
The
following year, she was convicted of kidnapping and assault over the killing of
Stompie Moeketsi, a 14-year-old boy.
In 1992,
the Mandelas separated, and then divorced in 1996, after a legal wrangle that
revealed she had had an affair with a young bodyguard.
During her
old age, she re-emerged as a "mother of the nation" figure who was
feted as a living reminder of the late Mandela and of the long struggle against
apartheid.
Just last
month, she was shown in television footage joking with Cyril Ramaphosa, the
newly-appointed president who paid a courtesy call at her home in Soweto, the
township where she lived for decades.
Dressed in
full ANC colours of yellow, black and green, she asked Ramaphosa, who is known
for his morning runs, "Why don't you get tired?"
"We
can't get tired when you have given us work to do'" Ramaphosa said, paying
fulsome praise to her appearance.
She had
also expressed support for the current leadership of the ANC (African National
Congress) party - which her husband led to power in the euphoric post-apartheid
elections of 1994.
#UPDATE Winnie Mandela's "courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me," Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu says https://t.co/QgYSX2xmoL pic.twitter.com/RjNRtlAjjE— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 2, 2018
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