Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Mandela dies at 81

Winnie Mandela, the former wife of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, died on Monday 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.
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.