Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela-Mandela\u201a a stalwart in the fight against apartheid\u201a has died at the age of 81.<\/p>\n
Her PA\u201a Zodwa Zwane\u201a confirmed the struggle veteran\u2019s death on Monday afternoon. She said the family would be issuing a statement later in the day.<\/p>\n
Born in Bizana in the Eastern Cape in 1936\u201a she moved to Johannesburg to study social work after matriculating.<\/p>\n
She met lawyer and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in 1957 and they were married a year later. They had two children together.<\/p>\n
However\u201a her marriage life with Mandela was short-lived\u201a as he was arrested in 1963 and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason. Mandela was eventually released in 1990.<\/p>\n
During Mandela\u2019s time in prison\u201a Madikizela-Mandela was not spared the reach of the apartheid forces. She was placed under house arrest and at one time banished to Brandfort\u201a a town in the Free State.<\/p>\n
In 1969\u201a 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.<\/p>\n
Controversy<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1991\u201a she was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault of Stompie Seipei\u201a a young activist who was killed by a member of her bodyguards\u201a the Mandela United Football Club.<\/p>\n Madikizela-Mandela\u2019s bodyguards had abducted Seipei\u201a 14\u201a in 1989\u201a along with three other youths\u201a from the home of Methodist minister Paul Verryn.<\/p>\n Her six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine and a two-year suspended sentence on appeal.<\/p>\n Her marriage to Mandela began to flounder a few years after his release.<\/p>\n A letter she purportedly wrote to her young lover found its way into the newspapers.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re running around f\u2026ing at the slightest emotional excuse\u201a\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that I haven\u2019t been speaking to Tata [Nelson Mandela] for five months now over you is no longer your concern. I keep telling you the situation is deteriorating at home. You are not bothered because you are satisfying yourself every night with a woman\u201a\u201d Madikizela-Mandela reportedly wrote.<\/p>\n In his book Odyssey to Freedom\u201a veteran advocate George Bizos described how Mandela would not attend legal consultations Bizos had with Madikizela-Mandela during the Seipei trial.<\/p>\n \u201cHe drew the line at attending our consultations\u201a primarily because these meetings were also attended by the young lawyer \u2026 her lover during the latter part of Nelson\u2019s imprisonment and after he was released\u201a\u201d Bizos wrote in his book.<\/p>\n The couple divorced in 1996\u201a 37 years after their marriage.<\/p>\n After the first democratic election in 1994\u201a Madikizela-Mandela became an MP and was appointed deputy minister of arts and culture. She was fired by Mandela after an unauthorised trip to Ghana.<\/p>\n She had been an MP ever since\u201a despite limited appearances in Parliament in the past few years.<\/p>\n In 2016\u201a she was conferred an Order of Luthuli in Silver during the National Orders Awards ceremony for her excellent contribution to the fight for the liberation of the people of South Africa.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: Herald live<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela-Mandela\u201a a stalwart in the fight against apartheid\u201a has died at the age of 81. Her PA\u201a Zodwa Zwane\u201a confirmed the struggle veteran\u2019s death on Monday afternoon. She said the family would be issuing a statement later in the day. Born in Bizana in the Eastern Cape in 1936\u201a she moved to Johannesburg […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":415042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[18407],"yoast_head":"\n