Very sad news to report ILOSM family. The ex-wife of the late icon, Nelson Mandela, Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela-Mandela a.k.a. Winnie Mandela‚ has died at the age of 81.
According to Times Live, ‘her PA‚ Zodwa Zwane‚ confirmed the struggle veteran’s death on Monday afternoon. She said the family would issue a statement later in the day.’
She Stood By Her Man
The world came to know the strength of Winnie Mandela after not only watching her stand by her man’s side as he served 27 years for “treason”- which was really him just fighting for the freedom of his people in S.A.- but we also saw her become a true warrior in her fight against apartheid in South Africa, by any means necessary.
She was born in Bizana in the Eastern Cape in 1936 and later moved to Johannesburg to study social work. That’s where she met then attorney/anti-apartheid activist, Nelson Mandela, in 1957. One year later, they were married and had two children together.
Unfortunately, they only got to live in peaceful marital bliss for 6 years, before Nelson Mandela received his life sentenced in 1963, which again, he ultimately ended up serving 27 years of, being released in 1990.
Winnie Fought A Good Fight
As a result of the unfair sentencing her husband received, combined with the oppression the people of South Africa were forced to live under, Winnie became incredibly passionate about fighting against the system. That, too, cost her her freedom at one point:
Via Times Live: During Mandela’s time in prison‚ Madikizela-Mandela was not spared the reach of the apartheid forces. She was placed under house arrest and at one time banished to Brandfort‚ a town in the Free State.
In 1969‚ Madikizela-Mandela became one of the first detainees under Section 6 of the notorious Terrorism Act of 1967. She was detained for 18 months in solitary confinement in a condemned cell at Pretoria Central Prison before being charged under the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950.
In 1991‚ she was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault of Stompie Seipei‚ a young activist who was killed by a member of her bodyguards‚ the Mandela United Football Club.
Madikizela-Mandela’s bodyguards had abducted Seipei‚ 14‚ in 1989‚ along with three other youths‚ from the home of Methodist minister Paul Verryn. Her six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine and a two-year suspended sentence on appeal.
Following Nelson Mandela’s prison release, he and his wife’s idea of fighting for humanity, began to take two separate paths, which greatly contributed to their divorce in 1996, after 37 years of marriage. They were both passionate about the same struggle, however, they simply had different views on how freedom should be obtained. Winnie was known for taking the more aggressive, by-any-means-necessary approach toward fighting against the governmental system that oppressed millions of their people. While Nelson Mandela took the more legal approach, toward fighting the same fight, ultimately becoming South Africa’s first Black president in 1994.
Like her husband, Winnie Mandela was a fighter for justice and freedom until the very end and she will forever be remembered as a passionate warrior for equal rights. Rest well Winnie, after a job well done.
