Johannesburg (South Africa) | 2 April 2018:
Ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has died aged 81 on Monday at Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg after long illness, said her spokesman Victor Dlamini in a press statement.
The anti-apartheid campaigner succumbed peacefully surrounded by her family and loved ones, added the personal assistant.
Chairperson of African National Congress (ANC), Gwede Mantashe, said President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to visit the family later in the evening.
Winnie and Nelson Mandela were married for 38 years. They wed in June 1958 after meeting at a bus stop a year ago in Soweto. She was then 22 and her future husband was already married to Evelyn Ntoko Mase since 1944.
Mandela divorced his first wife in 1958 and his married life with Winnie ended in 1996. He married Graca Machel, widows of former Mozambican president Samora Machel, in 1998, who died out of pneumonia in 2013.
Winnie was born as Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela on 26 September 1936 to a noble family of the Xhosa-speaking Pondo tribe in Transkey.
In his autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom," Nelson Mandela shared he met Winnie at a bus stop one day in 1957. He wrote, "I was struck by her beauty." He was then 40 and father of three.
However, most of their married life was spent apart as Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and she was left alone to raise their two daughters.
In October 1958 she was arrested for protesting with other women against pass system to unrestrict movements of black in white-designated areas. It was her first arrest and after the life in prison sentence on husband in 1964 she was in and out of jail. Rarely she was allowed to visit her husband in prison. Her meet was always divided by a glass screen.
References
Source 1: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Is Dead at 81; Fought Apartheid
Source 2: Winnie Mandela: South Africa's flawed heroine
Author Paul Linus
Ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has died aged 81 on Monday at Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg after long illness, said her spokesman Victor Dlamini in a press statement.
The anti-apartheid campaigner succumbed peacefully surrounded by her family and loved ones, added the personal assistant.
Chairperson of African National Congress (ANC), Gwede Mantashe, said President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to visit the family later in the evening.
Winnie and Nelson Mandela were married for 38 years. They wed in June 1958 after meeting at a bus stop a year ago in Soweto. She was then 22 and her future husband was already married to Evelyn Ntoko Mase since 1944.
Mandela divorced his first wife in 1958 and his married life with Winnie ended in 1996. He married Graca Machel, widows of former Mozambican president Samora Machel, in 1998, who died out of pneumonia in 2013.
Winnie was born as Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela on 26 September 1936 to a noble family of the Xhosa-speaking Pondo tribe in Transkey.
In his autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom," Nelson Mandela shared he met Winnie at a bus stop one day in 1957. He wrote, "I was struck by her beauty." He was then 40 and father of three.
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However, most of their married life was spent apart as Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and she was left alone to raise their two daughters.
In October 1958 she was arrested for protesting with other women against pass system to unrestrict movements of black in white-designated areas. It was her first arrest and after the life in prison sentence on husband in 1964 she was in and out of jail. Rarely she was allowed to visit her husband in prison. Her meet was always divided by a glass screen.
References
Source 1: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Is Dead at 81; Fought Apartheid
Source 2: Winnie Mandela: South Africa's flawed heroine
Author Paul Linus
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