Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, anti-apartheid campaigner, dies

Further details will be announced as arrangements are finalized in consultation between the government and the family of Ms Madikizela-Mandela, Mr Ramaphosa said.

“She was supposed to be the president of the ANC”.

“She defied the repressive laws and associated patriarchy, embodied a courageous character of an unflinching woman in the wake of all odds against her throughout her life.

Wherever she came out, everyone saw the struggle in person, she was the struggle personified”.

In an interview with British journalist Mark Austin in July 2013, Madikizela-Mandela said she and Machel were “like sisters. with very strong bonds, like an extended family”. She had campaigned for 27 long years for his release.

There is no denying that Madikizela-Mandela’s passing left the EFF leader distraught.

Madikizela-Mandela always was aware of the danger of being overshadowed by her husband’s all-encompassing personality, and she vowed not to lose herself.

Machel said Madikizela-Mandela’s legacy would be an “uplifting beacon from which we can continue to draw guidance and strength during hard times”.

He continued: “Although Mama Madikizela-Mandela made some well-documented errors of judgment during her life, she remained committed to the vulnerable and was often the first at the scene of a tragedy to provide comfort and compassion to those impacted by it”.

My last lunch with Winnie Mandela was a most memorable one‚ here in Vilakazi Street.

They pointed out that under apartheid, the social worker witnessed every day the deep humiliations and blanket inequality of her people, which “were bound to cloud the mind”.

She was not allowed to receive visitors, but she travelled daily to the local post office to make phone calls telling the world about the brutality of the apartheid system.

“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 recognizable faces”, the family said.

Leading UK political figures also paid tribute.

“There will be many other memorial functions across the country‚ in nearly every province”, Ramaphosa contined, reportedly speaking outside Madikizela-Mandela’s home.

In 1957, she met Nelson Mandela, an up-and-coming lawyer and anti-apartheid activist 18 years her senior, and they married a year later. Because these men knew – and could publicly divulge – the darkest secrets of the ANC, secrets in which the likes of Madikizela-Mandela might be intimately involved. We will tell them distance yourself from Winnie Mandela. In 1991, Madikizela-Mandela was charged with Moeketsi’s killing.

Still harassed by police, Madikizela-Mandela gathered a group of young men known as the Mandela United Football Club, who lived on her property. “You’ve earned it”, President Akufo-Addo.

“We are here to say the spear has fallen, we are here to pick up the spear and fight on”, Malema said.