South African anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has died on Easter Monday, aged 81, her personal assistant said today. Winnie Madikizela Mandela was the former wife of South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela.Her personal assistant Zodwa Zwane gave no further details but said a statement would be released later. Earlier this year, Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife was hospitalized for a kidney ailment and exhaustion.
She was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital in January, after complaining of a ‘loss of appetite’ and that ‘one of her legs was painful’. Ms Madikizela-Mandela had also been in and out of hospital since 2016 for back and knee surgery.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela married Nelson Mandela in 1956, six years before he was imprisoned for his fight against apartheid in 1962.During her ex-husband’s 27-year imprisonment, Ms Madikizela-Mandela campaigned for his release and the rights of black South Africans.
She became a symbol for the anti-apartheid struggle, undergoing arrest and banishment herself.She walked side-by-side with her husband upon his 1990 release, and as he became South Africa’s president in the first post-apartheid elections.
IN 1996, Mandela divorced her and fired her as deputy minister of arts and culture, but she kept his name and stayed close to her ex-husband until his death.